Blog

Hub Agreement Programs

Functionality to support the Hub agreement programs — Membership, Subscriptions, and Integration Partners — has been added to the Local Contexts Hub. All institution and researcher accounts will need to have a signed Subscriber Agreement to utilize the Hub’s functionality. All community accounts will maintain the same functionality as previously.

After you create a researcher or institution account, the Local Contexts team will reach out to you regarding the Subscription agreement process. Integration Partner accounts will also be contacted by the team. We will soon be in touch with existing and new community accounts about the new, optional Membership program.

Unsure of what account type you should create? Check out our Agreements page for more information, or complete the new agreement form and our team will reach out to assist.

Expanded Account Types and Settings

Integration Partner Account

Integration Partner accounts have been added as a new account option. An Integration Partner account is for organizations that offer platforms for users to organize or share collections or data. This includes collections management systems, digital asset management systems, repositories, and databases. This program is a means for organizations to certify that their platform’s use of the Local Contexts Labels and Notices meets integration standards and expectations.

Integration Partner benefits include increased utility of your products by Local Contexts Subscribers and Members. Integration Partners will be listed on the Local Contexts Integration Partner page certifying compliance with Local Contexts integration standards, and have access to the Integration Partner logo and the Open to Collaborate Notice.

Visit our Integration Partners page for more information.

Connect to an Integration Partner

All accounts can view and connect to certified Integration Partners in their account settings. If an Integration Partner requires authentication, Hub accounts can login with the platform’s credentials. This will allow for the Integration Partner’s API connection to link to the Hub account’s Projects. This connection can be limited to either public/contributor Projects only or all Projects (including private Projects).

Expanded Account Settings

All accounts will now have an account preferences page within their account settings. At the moment, there are settings here related to the Integration Partner connections, but we are working on adding more preferences as you share your feedback and ideas.

API keys & v2 of API

The API has been updated to a version 2 (v2) for improved integration. API v2 will require an API key that can be generated within your account settings.

API v1 will continue to be available so as to not disrupt any existing Projects using the API. However, any Projects created after February 10, 2025 UTC, will not show in v1. If you need to connect to a Project that has been created after this date, you will need to update your API connections to v2.

Visit our API guide for more information and to view our new OpenAPI documentation.

Project Boundary

In working towards our goal of supporting a mapping option to connect communities with their belongings and data, the second stage of this feature has been added to the Project creation process.

Users can search the Native Land Digital database or upload a shapefile to identify the spatial area where a Project is located or originated from. Additional options to add boundaries to Projects and community accounts are currently being developed. For more information, see our previous update.