Curatorial Agency in IR Migrations: A Case Study of the University of Toledo Digital Repository

Starting, Strengthening, and Managing Institutional Repositories

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the breadth of the challenges and issues facing institutional repositories in academic libraries, based on a survey of academic librarians. Particularly, this study covers the challenges and barriers related to data management facing institutional repositories.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a survey method to identify the relative significance of major challenges facing institutional repositories across six dimensions, including: data, metadata, technological requirements, user needs, ethical concerns and administrative challenges.FindingsThe results of the survey reveal that academic librarians identify limited resources, including insufficient budget and staff, as the major factor preventing the development and/or deployment of services in institutional repositories. The study also highlights crucial challenges in different dimensions of institutional repositories, including the sheer amount of data, institutional support for metadata creation and the sensitivity of data.Originality/valueThis study is one of a few studies that comprehensively identified the variety of challenges that institutional repositories face in operating academic libraries with a focus on data management in institutional repositories. In this study, 37 types of challenges were identified in six dimensions of institutional repositories. More importantly, the significance of those challenges was assessed from the perspective of academic librarians involved in institutional repository services.

This study investigated the development of institutional repositories (IRs) at doctoral institutions, identifying factors that influence development and best practices using a comparative case study analysis approach to gather and analyze data. The development of a repository is one of the more complex projects that librarians may undertake. While many librarians have managed large information system projects, IR projects involve a larger stakeholder group and require support from technical services, public services, and administration to succeed. A significant increase in the development of repositories is expected with technology and process improvements for digital collection development so further study is warranted. Both institutional and subject repositories were examined for the case studies. Best practices and recommendations for future developers, such as early involvement of stakeholder groups and the need to educate both librarians and teaching faculty about open access collections, are also discussed. This study contributes to a more informed understanding of the development of IRs and identifies a model framework for future IR developers. The best practices framework incorporates the processes from the case study sites and includes additional factors identified from the case study interviews. Key to the framework is the inclusion of stakeholder groups on campus and assessment measures. While the case studies focused on doctoral institutions, the framework can be adapted to any size institution.

This paper describes University College Dublin Library's participation in a series of parallel projects including building a national open access portal, Rian.ie; developing an international subject based portal, EconomistsOnline.org; and the planning, development and management of a university institutional repository (IR) service. Particular emphasis is placed on the use of the PMBOK® project management methodology. While much of the literature on IRs concentrates on critical success factors, only a few papers suggest applying standard methodologies to IR project planning, and very few papers detail the complex process of planning an IR using these methodologies. This paper addresses this gap in the literature and describes the practical experience of participating in two OAI-PMH harvesting projects at national and international levels and the effect that this has had on local IR development. Participating in the two services can be shown to have had a positive effect on all aspects of project management.

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the essential partnerships needed to better guarantee strong added value institutional repository (IR) service provision for faculty user satisfaction, resulting in the essential content acquisition for IRs.Design/methodology/approachThree crucial partnerships are described as a basis for the development of a meaningful institutional repository service. This paper concentrates on two partnerships: the first describes the importance of partnership between institutions; in this case, an international subject‐specific network: Nereus is an innovative consortium of 15 prestigious European universities and institutes in the area of economics. The second partnership goes into that of the library with its IR content providers and service end users by taking the Economists Online (EO) project model as a case in point.FindingsUniversity libraries and their changing active roles are building valuable partnerships with their clients and information providers; the Nereus consortium, and its EO project is a case in point where benefits are felt by both libraries and researchers. EO is a Nereus cornerstone and aims to increase the usability, accessibility and visibility of economics research by digitizing, organizing, archiving and disseminating the complete academic output of some of Europe's leading economists, with full text access as key. It is building an integrated online showcase of Europe based on IRs. EO's prime goal is to focus on services of direct value to the author, e.g. providing new full text content online, digitizing older material, creating automated publication lists, metadata quality‐control, more focused dissemination of content – all from one repository source and complimentary to the services publishers provide. Successful partnerships can be formed by designing and offering a strong product and service, combined with a good advocacy program containing arguments which support the researcher in his/her work process, and addressing real problems.Originality/valueNereus and Economists Online have the potential to be a model for adaptation in any disciplinary sector for disseminating and giving heightened access to scientific output online. Some of the critical success factors of these initiatives have been identified and expanded upon in the paper.

Purpose – Research dissemination is a core mission for all universities. As a result, libraries should adopt this mission, utilizing institutional repositories services to support this goal. This paper aims to explore management models that institutional repositories can use for this purpose. Design/methodology/approach – By using research dissemination as a primary objective, individual management models are reviewed for their ability to accomplish this goal. Institutional repository services resulting from this purpose are also described. Findings – By adopting these kinds of models, libraries can develop new services that go beyond traditional library services and provide key support for the dissemination of a university's scholarship. Originality/value – This article challenges the existing ideology surrounding institutional repositories and helps frame these services as a core component for fulfilling an important university mission.

Institutional repository services in libraries essentially determine the quality of the scholarly output of postgraduate students. Subsequently, this demands a multi-skilled workforce, facilities, and ICT infrastructure. Tangibility in this context is demonstrated when the staff in charge are decent, premises are neat, resources are easily retrievable and ICT technologies are available. Demonstration of tangibility usually heightens user attractiveness to a place. It may also be reinforced by a user experiencing satisfaction through an easily navigable institutional repository, visually attractive arrangement of the contents, and easily downloadable research materials. Nevertheless, incidences of users getting disinterested and losing patience with institutional repositories have continued to be reported. This paper assesses the tangibility of repository service provision to postgraduate students at universities in Meru County, Kenya. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The SERVQUAL model was also adopted to underpin the research. The sample population consisted of 91 students and 10 library heads of sections. Post-graduate students filled out questionnaires while the library heads of sections participated in the interviews. Purposive sampling was used to get librarians and simple random sampling for students. The findings of the study indicated that the tangibility of institutional repositories at universities in Meru County was moderate. To improve it, the respondents recommended the provision of policies guiding the security of information, the repository section being operational during working hours, providing a functional website as well as shelving and classification of information materials be done regularly. There was a need to acquire modern reading tables, student computers, and provision of resources in full texts, and upgrade the earlier version of the repository management system with the current one. The paper recommends the heads of libraries liaise with university management to support and finance the acquisition of new and refurbish existing facilities, technologies, infrastructure, and additional resources. It is also recommended that the directorate of research to revise the postgraduate policy to include all postgraduate levels’ research in order to achieve inclusive service provision.

PurposeThe aim of this study is to show examples of good practice which can improve the functioning of an institutional repository (IR), arranged from the point of view of a user, author and reviewer.Design/methodology/approachTo collect examples of good practice which can improve the functioning of an IR, the author has based on several studies where the institutional databases are used as source to analyze the research output.FindingsExamples of good practice which can improve the functioning of an IR from different points of view. These include: (from the point of view of the user) visibility, accessibility, usability, update, navigability, quality and user satisfaction; (from the point of view of the author): political, legal aspects, security, authenticity and (from the point of view of an evaluator) it is important to provide as much information of each document as: title, author/s, institution and country of authors, abstract, document type, journal, language, type of deposit, publication year, year of deposit, subject, keywords, format, file size, citations and downloads that the document has received.Practical implicationsFor researchers and experts that create, maintain and use IRs.Originality/valueThis study collects examples of good practice which can improve the functioning of an IR, arranged from different points of view: user, author and reviewer.

Purpose– This paper aims to assess practical aspects of implementation of institutional repositories (IRs) in Africa with reference to the University of Nairobi and provide useful guidelines to the issues and lessons learned to the other practitioners.Design/methodology/approach– The study used cross-sectional descriptive survey design to gather and analyze data that was both qualitative and quantitative in nature. In addition, questionnaires, interview schedule and observation guide were utilized to collect data from the respondents.Findings– First, the study established that the IR has not been well integrated into mainstream information services of the library. Second, there is lack of awareness on the use of IR as an information resource on the part of students and staff. Third, there is need to integrate different forms of information into the IR including graphics, video and sound to carter for the whole population of users even those with disabilities. Finally, there is need for aggressive or serious rebranding, marketing and promotion of the IR.Research limitations/implications– IRs are vital sources of information that are increasingly being integrated and utilized in African higher education. Discussion of the University of Nairobi as a case study provides practical lessons, implications and home grown solutions for other institutions of higher learning in the African context.Practical implications– IR is not only contemporary or emerging source of knowledge, information and communication but also fundamental or basic in institutions of higher learning. Consequently, IR provides excellent opportunities for universities to expand knowledge beyond internal and external learning environments.Social implications– Being fundamental sources of knowledge, IRs provide and support teaching, learning, research activities, scholarly communications and community services in universities and the society at large. As information and communication hubs, IRs have reinvented the image and role of universities as sources of knowledge in the society.Originality/value– Universities need to embrace IRs as vital and valid sources of knowledge and learning. Developing IRs without aggressive rebranding, marketing and promotional strategies is not enough for universities, associated institutions plus the information staff, but with prove that the resources are being utilized to achieve organizational goals and objectives.

Community-based research often involves communities working in partnership with academic researchers to address issues and problems that the community has raised. Much of this work results in diverse publicly available materials that strive to inform public policy, strengthen funding proposals, empower community members, and advance social change. This article reports on a recent qualitative study exploring the role of institutional repositories in disseminating and preserving these community-based research products, informed by the perspectives, experiences, and motivations of academics involved in this work. Interviews with faculty members and university administrators at Canadian post-secondary institutions suggest that there is a widespread lack of awareness about ways that institutional repository services can leverage the impact and reach of public-facing work generated through these collaborations. Furthermore, a survey of Canadian scholarly communications librarians indicates that libraries do limited outreach to faculty members and administrators engaged in community-based research to promote these services. This article suggests ways that academic libraries can extend outreach strategies to bridge this observed gap between repository services and the dissemination and preservation of community-based research products directly informed by input from research participants. Doing so can advance widespread institutional commitments to community engagement and open science practices to benefit the public good.

PurposeThe purpose of this case study is to illustrate how a university library collaborated with a specific college to preserve scholarship with a sustainable approach. The practical process described is recommended for increasing content submissions in a newly established institutional repository. Of the eight colleges at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), the Honors College was selected as a case study for a library–college collaboration on content curation for the institutional repository that is maintained by MTSU’s Walker Library.Design/methodology/approachConcept of shared and divided responsibilities for the upload, maintenance and sustainability of institutional repository submissions based on a particular case study and aided with literature on data management, digital publishing, library publishing and preservation research.FindingsThe partner approach, the sharing and division of responsibilities, is instrumental to the growth and sustainability of a library publishing program and for the preservation of university scholarship.Practical implicationsThe (college) partner approach not only educates campus units about a new resource (e.g. institutional repository), but also encourages campus units to rethink other current and outdated practices that need to adapt to technological changes that support the unit and its students. This approach will help the library with campus outreach after an institutional repository is implemented and offers guidance on a collaborative approach to repository submission growth.Originality/valueThis paper suggests a (college) partner approach that mutually benefits the College and its students, departments and the library that maintains the institutional repository on behalf of the university. During the implementation process of this case study, an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)/accessibility compliance issue of repository items surfaced and allowed for a new course of action to be taken campus wide which adds to the originality of this case study.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the initial transformation of one academic library's digital media library into the institutional repository (IR) of its entire academic organization.Design/methodology/approachProvides a description of an academic digital library's evolution into an institutional repository, accompanied by both practical and philosophical analyses.FindingsMaterials supporting an academic institution's scholarship (from colleges and from supporting organizations on campus) can play an important part in the success of an institutional repository. Standards for metadata content, data structures and hierarchies of collections must be followed consistently, and adequate storage for digital media within an institutional repository is necessary to have in advance of anticipated demand for the smooth operation of the IR and continued access to materials. Gray areas between the role of an institutional repository and the role of that organization's archives need to be addressed in the future.Practical implicationsAcademic libraries can be highly successful in producing an institute repository by developing relationships with various organizations on campus in addition to the academic programs. Maintaining standards throughout the IR is crucial to future growth in an organized and consistent manner. Philosophical considerations of the role of the IR should be addressed in the beginning stages of the development of the IR for eliminating confusion and duplication of its contents with other campus organizations.Originality/valueThis paper describes the development of a digital library, created and maintained by an academic library, and its gradual change into a de facto institutional repository. Other libraries in the planning stages or initial steps of creating a campus‐wide digital library or an institutional repository can benefit from the description of possible successes and problems that they could encounter during implementation.

The Open Archival Information System (OAIS) reference model ensures that an organisation charged withthe task of preserving information (here, digital information) makes it accessible to the designated communityin the long-term. It elucidates the functions and processes so as to promote interoperability amongst digitallibraries, archives and other institutions and provides a framework for describing and comparing differentlong-term digital preservation strategies and techniques. This paper discusses what it means to be OAIScompliant for the pilot institutional repository at the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism (IIG). It maps the six entitiesof an OAIS-compliant repository (Ingest, archival storage, administration, data management, preservationplanning and access) onto a pilot institutional repository (IR) structure of the IIG. It discusses the policies andprocedures required for effective OAIS implementation within the IIG institutional repository and ways toeffectively develop these based on experiences from abroad. The paper further assesses how the institute’soperational structure can be informed by the OAIS and vice versa. It establishes the role of the preservationservice provider for the IIG IR, and explores the potential for interaction between IIG and such service providers.Itidentifies the rights and responsibilities, services and actions, and apportions these between the IR and thethird-party preservation repository service. It identifies the tools and develops the processes to implementthe preservation services and actions. It is expected that this study can be of use to other organisations thatmight want to undertake implementation of the OAIS reference model. http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/djlit.32.4.2527

Purpose: Ancient higher education has excellent teaching and research. Takshila University has produced scholars such as Chanakya, author of the great book Arthashastra, Panini, a renowned Sanskrit scholar and grammarian, Charaka, the father of Indian medicine, Surgeon Jivaka Kumarabhattaa, Sharada Peetha Temple University has 5000 scholars like Kumarajiva Buddhist scholar, Thonmi Sambhota and Library, Pushapagiri University, Kanthalloor Sabha in Kerala, and Ujjaini University Alumni Brahmgupa and Bhaskar II. Dipankar Sri-Jnana, a prominent Vikramasila scholar, released over 200 volumes, while Mithila, a centre of Brahminical culture, produced intellectuals like Jagaddhara, who created writings such as Gita and Gita Govinda. These are the world's oldest institutions; no Institutional Repositories were discovered during the Vedic period, but the Buddhist period gave rise to Institutional Repositories, which house collections of books on various subjects. Scholars and students rely on institutional repositories. Takshashila University students come from all across Aryavrat, as well as from places like Greece, Arabia, Japan, Indonesia, Mongolia, and China. Nalanda University specializes in Buddhist education, but it also offers other courses. It contains a massive Institutional Repository of manuscripts from many curricula and Sanskrit texts totalling 5,00,000 shlokas. During the fifteenth century, Tibetan scholar Taranatha wrote about the nine-story library of Nalanda University with 9 million manuscripts and the Saraswati Mahal manuscript library of Tanjore in his travelogues about the Nalanda institutional repository namely Ratnasagara, Ratnodadhi, and Ratnaranjaka located in a complex called 'Dharmaganja'. The University Institutional Repository provides services to its members and community to threaten the institution's visibility, standing, and public ideals. Design/ Methodology/Approach: This is a literature-based paper that investigates ancient university research academics' contributions to Institutional Repositories established around the world to create visibility. Findings and Results: Ancient University Institutional Repositories are the house of millions of manuscripts, Sanskrit text, and its slokas contributed by alumni of the university and Scholars. Originality/Value/Novelty: The article's case study and literature studies disclose the Ancient University Repository and researchers' and teachers' contributions to the repository. Type of Paper: Literature Review.

PurposeThe main purpose of this paper is to describe how the ISRO HQ Institutional Repository (IR) idea emerged and what are the steps taken to implement and build the IR. The scope of the repository, which started with newspaper clippings, has been enhanced to accommodate research papers, speeches/lectures, office orders/memorandums, videos, annual reports and the in‐house publications.Design/methodology/approachA comparative study of the available open source digital library software is made taking into consideration the availability of technical support, possibility of hands on training and the resources available for implementing the IR. Logical approach is made in building different communities, collections and decisions are taken in sharing the responsibility of maintaining different collections.FindingsThe paper provides evidence on how the ISRO HQ IR was built from scratch and how different collections with numerous forms and formats can be accommodated using DSpace software. Many problems were faced during customisation of metadata forms for different collections apart from Dublin Core metadata fields. DSpace allows workflow and customisation as per institutional requirements. It supports community/collection based content and submission by different user communities.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is a case study and limited only to ISRO HQ and describes the steps taken in implementing the IR considering the availability of technological infrastructure, manpower and possible collaboration of library with different sections/divisions at ISRO HQ.Originality/valueThis paper helps in planning to build an IR. The paper also helps the beginners in getting an idea of how different file formats can be used for different collections in order to maintain uniformity.