Digital preservation policies of the institutional repositories at Brazilian Federal Universities

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to verify the implementation of digital preservation policies at the institutional repositories (IRs) of Brazilian Federal Universities.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology used involved the verification of the information available in the Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR) and on the websites of the IRs, to confirm the existence of published digital preservation policies. In this study, a sample of the 26 IRs of Brazilian Federal Universities registered with OpenDOAR, which represents 68 per cent of these repositories, was used.FindingsThe main conclusion is that the IRs of these universities do not have any published digital preservation policies, even though some repositories state their intention of preserving digital material in their institutional information policy.Originality/valueThe stakeholders of IRs need to implement a programme to guide their activities to preserve digital materials in the long term. In fact, similar to examples worldwide, this programme should take the form of an institutional commitment outlined in a digital preservation policy. IRs at Brazilian Federal Universities still have a long way to go to guarantee access to digital materials in the long term.