The unique approach to institutional repository. Practice of National Taiwan University
| Date | 10 April 2009 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02640470910947566 |
| Pages | 204-221 |
| Published date | 10 April 2009 |
| Author | Kuang‐hua Chen,Jieh Hsiang |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Library & information science |
The unique approach to
institutional repository
Practice of National Taiwan University
Kuang-hua Chen
National Taiwan University Library, Taipei, Taiwan, and
Department of Library and Information Science,
National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
Jieh Hsiang
National Taiwan University Library and Department of Computer Science and
Information Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the practical and unique approach to construct an
institutional repository (IR) at the National Taiwan University (NTU).
Design/methodology/approach – In general, IR systems are used to preserve the research outputs
of academic organizations. The preserved contents as a whole will demonstrate the achievements and
influences of organizations. The NTU Repository (NTUR) project is the action which is the response of
NTU Library to the converging and emerging issues. The system design of NTUR is based on a
well-known open-source package, DSpace, but many of its functional modules are modified to fulfill
the requirements of Chinese users. The content acquisition of NTUR is carried out by a machine-aided
manual approach, which quickly accumulates the volume of registered digital objects in NTUR.
Findings – With comparison to other IR systems, it is found that a content-rich system with the
much friendlier user interface like NTUR could be constructed in an effective way. The
post-processing for search results – which is very unique feature of NTUR – could be also
implemented effectively.
Practical implications – Many investigations point out that an open-access IR system can decrease
the cost in dissemination of scholarly information and increase the impacts of research outputs.
Originality/value – The practical approach to the construction ofan institutional repository at NTU
has been proposed. The approach can make NTUR quickly acquire a large volume of digital objects.
This makes NTUR a much more content-rich repository with comparison to other similar IR systems.
Keywords Generation anddissemination of Information,Digital storage, Academic libraries,
Open systems, Taiwan
Paper type Research paper
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0264-0473.htm
The authors thank the members of the NTUR developing team at National Taiwan University
Library. They are: Su Chuan Chang; Mei-lin Kuo; Se-liang Wu; Zhe-an Wu; Yu-ting Chiang;
Ting-fai Ho; Cipher Kao; Chiu-chu Liu; Hsiao-ying Hung; Hou Ieong Ho; Shih-Li Chen; Feng-i Lin;
Ya-tzu Liu; Hsin-Yi Yeh; Yi-chun Liu; Bai-hsuan Lee; Ren-shiang Liu; Yun-jung Young;
Tsan-jiun Ho; Ya-fang Weng; Wen-chi Huang; Ying-fang Huang; Ying-lin Liu; Yu-Chieh, Lin;
Feng-ju Chen; Ching-hua Liao; Li-yun Chiang; and Yi-ling Tu.<br>This work is partly
supported by Ministry of Education, Taiwan under the grant numbers 95M1087, 96M1101, and
97M1069. This work is also partly supported by Excellent Research Projects of National Taiwan
University.
EL
27,2
204
Received 1 October 2008
Revised 20 November 2008
Accepted 30 November 2008
The Electronic Library
Vol. 27 No. 2, 2009
pp. 204-221
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0264-0473
DOI 10.1108/02640470910947566
Introduction
Nowadays, it is mainstream to present various digital documents, videos, audios, and
multimedia via WWW browsers, since the browser is regarded as the de facto common
platform for Internet applications. In addition, the line between users and authors of
Web resources has been blurred and the roles of publishers have become less
important than ever before. The quick development of WWW is a challenge and also
an opportunity to universities or research institutes, which may create alternative
ways to publish, disseminate, and acquire scholarly information without the
intervention of publishers and aggregators. As a result, the cost derived from
publication and acquisition of scholarly information will be reduced and the time of
dissemination of scholarly information will be decreased as well.
The purpose of dissemination of information is to make information usable or
citable. Citation has been regarded as a good way to clarify the roles and positions of
researchers in the whole research structure. Although the reasons to cite other papers
are multiple, it is well recognized that at least some connections exist among cited
papers and citing papers. Bibliographic couplings and co-citations are two obvious
examples. Citation also demonstrates a very special function, i.e. the influence or
impact of papers, researchers, and research institutes. Academic evaluation has
become an important topic, especially, the evaluation for universities or research
institutes. Citation, therefore, has been used as a way to evaluate academic
performance. To increase citation times of research outputs will be a plus for academic
evaluation in research institutes. And an Institutional repository (IR) seems to be one of
the solutions to increase the citation times.
Although many definitions for IRs could be found in literature, the idea of an IR is
very simple. It is to deposit every part of researches from the very beginning to the
final publication for universities or research institutes. With the observation to
publishing research results in recent years, many researchers prepare their papers or
articles using word processors and submit them in digital form rather than printed
form. As a result, the volume of “born-in-digital” documents increases very quickly.
However, Lynch (2003) pointed out that we still have no good ways to preserve these
research results in their digital form. The idea of the IR may be a good turning point to
rethink the model, mechanism, and means for the preservation and dissemination of
scholarly information. From the viewpoint of universities or research institutes, to
encourage faculty to publish research outputs and to make dissemination of papers
effective are the better means to increase the citation times of published papers and
then to increase universities influences. IR systems as academic portals of universities
or research institutes, the preserved scholarly information as a whole will demonstrate
the achievements and influences, and make accessing scholarly information much
more convenient. Deploying an IR system seems be the best way to share research
results with other universities and institutes in the world.
The National Taiwan University (NTU), one of the important universities in
Taiwan, has been making many significant achievements in researches and has been
publishing a great deal of research results. It is necessary for NTU to fulfill a good
model to preserve and disseminate NTU’s research outputs. NTU has initiated a task
force for a National Taiwan University Repository (NTUR) project and has established
an operational IR system which is also called NTUR. In the meantime, the NTUR
system contains 56,769 items of various types of scholarly information including
The approach to
institutional
repository
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