What’s the Big IDeA? Considerations for Implementing an Institutional Repository
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050510620235 |
| Date | 01 July 2005 |
| Published date | 01 July 2005 |
| Pages | 11-14 |
| Author | Emily Dill,Kristi L. Palmer |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
What's the Big IDeA? Considerations for
Implementing an Institutional Repository
Emily Dill and Kristi L. Palmer
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 6 2005, pp. 11-14, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050510620235 11
Institutional Repositories (IRs) have
recently become major players in the
Open Access movement. Libraries
across the world are clamoring to get
their own IRs launched, but when it
comes to getting an IR off the ground, it
is not as easy as downloading the
software and waiting for the scholarship
to come flooding in. There are many
manpower, technical, and policy issues
that need to be ironed out in order for an
IR to be successful. The following is
based on the experiences of the authors
and other library staff at Indiana
University-Purdue University
Indianapolis (IUPUI) in implementing
IDeA (IUPUI Digital Archive). The
intention of this article is to outline
some issues to consider when thinking
about starting an IR.
Open access and new forms of
scholarly communication
The influences behind IUPUI's
decision to implement an IR were not
unlike many other libraries' reasons for
taking the plunge. It became a sort of
perfect storm: new challenges met with
new possibilities and the IR was born.
The new challenges IUPUI libraries
faced included journal price increases
paired with approaching budget cuts;
increasing awareness of the toll of
copyright restrictions on authors;
increasing dissatisfaction with the
speed of the research cycle; and the
advent of units of scholarship that were
not successfully being disseminated by
traditional publication methods. Open
access models of scholarly
communication were able to answer
these challenges with their cost-
effective, copyright-friendly, and
technology-savvy means. Much of the
culture of IUPUI libraries seems to be
custom made for the support of open
access to scholarship. The libraries
have prided themselves on
technological innovation and library
administrators have encouraged the
pursuit of less charted waters.
Deciding to take the plunge
Once the library administration
recognized the need for something
different, it was time to investigate the
possible avenues of open access
scholarship. While open access journals
were obviously an important means of
furthering open access, it was decided
that the most practical way for the
library to support open access
publishing at that juncture was to
explore the possibility of starting an
institutional repository. The possible
benefits of the IRs identified included:
.Provided a functional framework
to collect, preserve, and dissemi-
nate scholarly content.
.Provided branding for an institu-
tion's scholarship.
.Consolidated a campus's scholarly
materials in one place, making
scholarship available to a world-
wide audience.
.Preserved digital content.
.Helped to decrease the cost of
accessing scholarship (long-term
benefit).
A task force was convened in 2002
to study the possibility of instituting an
IR at IUPUI.
The task force was made up of all
possible library stakeholders:
catalogers, archivists and special
collections librarians, digital library
team librarians, operations people, and
subject liaison librarians. The task force
set out to study the different products
available for IRs, as well as what it
would take (money, hardware,
knowledge, staff time) to implement
and maintain the IR. The task force also
examined IUPUI's faculty culture in
relation to how an IR might (or might
not!) be used.
Choosing an IR platform
When studying the IR platforms, the
task force limited itself to open source
products, essentially because no
commercial products were available at
the time and the library was not
interested in building its own from
scratch. Today there are more options.
When selecting a platform it is
important to keep in mind an
institution's assets and how material in
the IR will potentially be used. Each has
its advantages and disadvantages when
compared closely with the IR's
intended use. Proprietary repository
products have customer support and
ready-made infrastructure, but may lack
the customization capabilities needed
and will certainly come at a price.
Some disadvantages to using an
open source repository platform include
their lack of, traditional customer
support, built-in storage space, and
automatic metadata creation. On the
upside, open source software is freely
available and boasts great user bases
that are willing to offer support via
listservs and user groups.
Developing one's own platform
offers the ultimate customization but
will also require more expertise and
manpower. Regardless of whether an
institution uses a proprietary, custom
made, or open source product, the
promotion of the IR to the campus and
beyond (which has proven to be a
critical piece for many IRs) will be in
the hands of the institution.
To continue reading
Request your trial