Institutional Repository Managers Research Articles

Strategies for building institutional repositories a case study of content recruitment in Malaysian higher learning institutions

Various strategies have been developed to ensure the success of the critical and challenging process of recruiting content for institutional repositories. This article presents an in-depth exploration of content recruitment strategies used by three Malaysian higher learning institutions in their institutional repositories. Through interviews with nine repository librarians, the study investigates the various methods used to acquire content, including mediated deposit, self-archiving, and promotion activities. The study reveals that setting up content deposit as a quality objective and key performance indicator (KPI) is a new and effective strategy used among the three case studies. The findings provide valuable insights into the approaches taken by these institutions to recruit content and offer practical guidelines for academic librarians in general. This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on institutional repository management, highlighting the importance of implementing effective content recruitment strategies to ensure the success and sustainability of these repositories.

Embedding digital preservation strategies in the management of institutional repositories in South Africa

Institutional repositories (IRs) have received substantial consideration from various researchers across disciplines and around the world. Universities have considered prioritising the IR’s functionality by putting in place various measures to make IRs more efficient. This paper focuses on issues of institutional repositories and digital preservation in South Africa. The study drew from the secondary source of information in the African context and around the globe to have a sound argument that is more systematic towards IRs. The paper shows that in the past, various studies have focused on the field of preservation of cultural heritage in general. The gap identified by literature was that there was very little provision of reliable long-term digital repositories in Africa. The literature further revealed that most institutions of higher learning in South Africa are now migrating to have full implementation of digital preservation for their IRs. It is recommended that digital preservation strategies should be embedded in institutional repositories in South Africa.

Capacity Building for Effective Services Delivery of Library Staff in Festus Aghagbo Nwako Library (FANL), Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka

The study surveyed capacity building for effective service delivery of library staff in Festus Aghagbo Nwako library (FANL), Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. It adopted a case study research design. Five research questions and five purposes of study, guided the research. The population of the study was made up of 107 library staff. Total enumeration technique was used so there was no sampling. The instrument for data collection was questionnaire titled “Capacity Building for Effective Service Delivery Questionnaire (CBFESDQ)”. Out of the 107 questionnaires administered 90(84.1) were returned and found useful for analysis. Data was analysed using frequencies, percentages and mean scores. The findings of the study revealed that the methods used in capacity building in FANL were job rotation (72%), coaching (77%), seminars (87%) and workshops (91%). It also found that the contents of capacity building programs that enhance library staff services delivery were training on OPAC, SDI, manual/ online cataloguing, library management, readers’ services, ICTs in libraries, digitalization of library resources, current awareness services and institutional repository management. The study revealed that that the capacity building influenced services delivery to a high extent(3.44). It also found that the problems associated with capacity building of library staff are financial problem, insufficient administrative commitment and absence of capacity building policy or framework. Finally, the study found that the strategies for improving capacity building of library staff for effective service delivery are proper funding, improved administrative commitment and provision and implementation of capacity building policy. The study recommended that the university library management should improve on the capacity building Programme for their staff to enable them acquire new skills for effective service delivery.

Institutional repositories and copyright in Greek academic libraries

Institutional repositories were created to collect, preserve, and make available the academic institution's scientific output. The purpose of this study is to investigate and illustrate how Greek academic libraries with institutional repositories deal with copyright challenges. The study aims to identify and describe if institutional repository managers apply a certain copyright clearance protocol, the problems they encounter, and how they deal with them. For this study, a quantitative research method based on questionnaires was employed. The questionnaire consisted of twenty-nine (29) questions separated into three (3) sections and was sent to thirty-one (31) academic libraries. According to the survey results, the majority of academic libraries have an institutional repository and provide open access to its content. It was found that academic institutional repositories face intellectual property difficulties. The biggest issue highlighted was a lack of knowledge of the notion of copyright. Finally, communication amongst libraries seems to be the foundation for developing a common policy and addressing the difficulties that have arisen in institutional repositories as a result of Greek copyright legislation limits.

Scholarly Communication Competencies: An Analysis of Confidence among Australasia Library Staff

Through a nationwide survey of universities and research organizations in Australia and New Zealand, this article investigates the level of confidence that librarians working in scholarly communication have in their current competencies. The results show that, while respondents were generally confident across seven competency areas (institutional repository management, publishing services, research practice, copyright services, open access policies and scholarly communication landscape, data management services, and assessment and impact metrics), the majority combined their scholarly communication tasks with other roles. Challenges across the sector in updating skills and knowledge to keep abreast of current trends and developments were identified, with implications for improving professional development opportunities.

Institutional Repository Perpustakaan Perguruan Tinggi (Studi Kasus di Perpustakaan Universitas Panca Bhakti)

The purpose of this study is to examine the problems contained in the Panca Bhakti University Library in building an Institutional Repository and to find out the stages in developing an Institutional Repository at the Panca Bhakti University Library. The method used in this research is descriptive analytical research method. The results obtained in this study were the finding of obstacles in building an Institutional Repository at the Panca Bhakti University Library, namely copyright, HR, and plagiarism issues. The steps taken by the Panca Bhakti University Library are analyzing the needs of its users, human resources that focus on the management of institutional repositories, facilities and infrastructure that increase capacity to support the implementation of activities in digital libraries, the last of which is the repository content providing scientific works from the academic community. Panca Bhakti University.

Driving forces behind the management of Institutional Repositories: Qualitative evidences

An Institutional repository (IR) is a contemporary paradigm of scholarly communication that operates on a open access initiative. IRs have become essential infrastructure for the global research community with the expectation that IRs will address the issues of visibility, and facilitate the rapid dissemination of knowledge in a sustainable manner. However, scholars show concern about these expectations due to some shortcomings in the management of repositories and digitization projects, especially in Africa. This study aims to gain a deeper understanding of how personnel involved in institutional repository at their respective institutions are managing the IR, and identify the driving forces behind the management of these IRs. It also attempts to explore the key challenges in the context of IR management, specifically in Nigeria. The study adopts a descriptive qualitative approach using a semi-structured interview guide as the main instrument for data collection, supported by content analysis and group discussions. Three research questions were constructed to guide the investigation: (a) How are IRs being managed in Nigeria? (b) What are the driving forces behind the management of IRs in Nigeria? An (c) What are the challenges in the management of IRs in Nigeria? Findings reveal that manager of IRs are heavily dependent on mediated depositing and digitization processes. Increasing visibility and ranking of the institution, need for preservation, and need for organization of intellectual output, were among the key drivers of IR management. While, plagiarism, piracy, absence of guiding policies, and inadequate internet connectivity were among the hinderances faced in the management of IRs. The results are imperatively useful for practitioners, especially those managing or aspiring to manage successful IRs in developing countries, particularly in Africa. The study recommends strategic development and enforcement of policies by the institutions, use of similarity checkers, massive awareness creation and staff training for the success of IR management in Nigeria.

Adoption of the Guidelines for Higher Education Libraries in Portugal: contributions to assessment

Three years after the publication and large-scale dissemination of the guideline document for Higher Education Libraries, we seek to understand the extent to which this document has been adopted by librarians and how revealing practices and experiences have been introduced in Portuguese higher education libraries. This paper aims to assess the application of the Recommendations in the area of user training, particularly in information literacy; in digital content management, including data and scientific production; and in the direct support to students, teachers and researchers, not forgetting the aspects of space management and information resources as a whole. For this purpose, a questionnaire survey was used for higher education libraries in Portugal. The most implemented areas are information literacy and the management of institutional repositories, and the one with the lowest level of the application relates to support for editorial projects.

Towards a Devolved Model of Management of OER? The Case of the Irish Higher Education Sector

This paper reports on the research findings from a national project examining the issues in creating, sharing, using, and reusing open educational resources (OER) in the context of the development of open education in Ireland. One important aspect of the research was to investigate the potential for using existing institutional research repository infrastructure for the purpose of ingesting, managing, and discovering OER produced by academics. This approach would imply a move from previous strategy around a centralised repository at the national level to a devolved model that relies on institutional research repositories. The opportunities and potential barriers to the adoption of this approach were explored through an online survey and focus groups with academics from a range of higher education institutions (HEIs). Also, a focus group of institutional repository managers was convened to discuss the potential of the institutional repositories with those leading their development. Analysis of the data indicates that the devolved approach to institutions would be possible if the right supports and protocols were put in place. It was acknowledged that research repositories could potentially also serve as repositories of teaching materials, fostering parity of esteem between teaching and research. However, a range of important challenges were present, and alternative solutions emerged, which are discussed in the context of the present and future of online OER repositories.

Management of institutional repositories (IR) in higher education perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to ascertain the management of institutional repository (IR) in Nigerian universities.Design/methodology/approachThe study took the form of a descriptive survey, gathering data from academics and repository mangers from 15 universities that have their IR captured on OpenDOAR.FindingsThe results showed that most academics submit their work for archiving in IR, and the types of materials submitted are mostly journal articles and conference proceedings. Contents are archived, using self-archiving and mediated submission. Some universities do not provide support and motivation towards the research works of their staff.Practical implicationsThe implication of the study lies in the adoption and implementation of the framework presented in this work to ensure the growth and sustainability of IR.Originality/valueThe study is based on the findings presented a framework to guide repository managers to ensure effective management of IR.

Opening Up Open Access Institutional Repositories to Demonstrate Value: Two Universities’ Pilots on Including Metadata-Only Records

INTRODUCTION Institutional repository managers are continuously looking for new ways to demonstrate the value of their repositories. One way to do this is to create a more inclusive repository that provides reliable information about the research output produced by faculty affiliated with the institution. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM This article details two pilot projects that evaluated how their repositories could track faculty research output through the inclusion of metadata-only (no full-text) records. The purpose of each pilot project was to determine the feasibility and provide an assessment of the long-term impact on the repository’s mission statement, staffing, and collection development policies. NEXT STEPS This article shares the results of the pilot project and explores the impact for faculty and end users as well as the implications for repositories.

Breaking It Down: A Brief Exploration of Institutional Repository Submission Agreements

ABSTRACT Institutional repositories typically have a submission agreement that is meant to protect the institution hosting the repository and inform submitters of their rights and responsibilities. This article examines how various libraries have created submission agreements, enquires as to issues surrounding them, and identifies commonalities and unique statements. The authors deployed a survey to institutional repository administrators listed in OpenDOAR in the United States. Approximately 7% of the 304 potential institutional repository managers responded. Library administrators, institutional repositories managers/architects, and legal counsel were the most likely to have input into the creation of the submission agreement; scholarly communications librarians were involved only 20% of the time. Although submission agreements averaged 282 words arranged in 9 sentences, their reading complexity requires a university degree. Commonalities include characterizing the agreement as a non-exclusive license, indicating the submitter's responsibility for obtaining permissions for any content that they did not produce, and confirming the right of the submitter to enter into the agreement. Submission agreements are generally complex and do not accommodate the common practice of mediated submission. Sharing submission agreements publicly may lead to simplified and standardized language and reduce barriers to submitters.

Exploring researchers' participation in online research identity management systems

ABSTRACTPrior studies have identified a need for engaging researchers in providing and curating their identity data. This poster reports preliminary findings of a qualitative study exploring how researchers use and engage in online research identity management (RIM) systems. The findings identify nine activity or task related motivations of using RIM systems. This study also identified three levels of participation in RIM systems: Readers, Personal Record Managers, and Community Members. Most participants of this study fell into the category of Personal Record Managers, who may maintain their own profiles in a RIM system. This suggests that a majority of researchers may be willing to maintain their research identity profiles. Institutional repository managers may consider recruiting researchers as not only research information and data providers, but also curators of their own research identity data.

Critical success factors for institutional repositories implementation

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the critical factors that contribute to the success of institutional repositories worldwide. Previous research indicates that there is little agreement surrounding what constitutes a successful institutional repository. Design/methodology/approach – Possible key factors were extracted from literature review and responses from expert panels. A web-based survey questionnaire forming a total of 69-item statements was developed. The questionnaire, when pilot-tested, was found highly reliable. The questionnaire was then distributed to 322 institutional repository managers, who are representative of the population, via the OpenDOAR email distribution service. Data collection ended in four months, once the sample volume of usable questionnaires reached 295, which is 91.6 per cent response rate. Findings – The results of the factor analysis indicate the possibility of 46 variables under six factors being important for the success of institutional repository implementation. These six factors are “Management”, “Services”, “Technology”, “Self-archive Practices”, “People” and “Resources”. Practical implications – This study has empirically tested and consolidated the factors which are important in institutional repository implementation worldwide and documented them as critical success factors. Originality/value – It also frames questions about the possible value of developing some guidelines or standards related to success factors to be able to monitor the deployment of institutional repositories.

Open access for REF2020

Open access (OA) may have been the ‘big thing’ in 2013 but the OA juggernaut is still rolling and plans are now afoot for the requirements for the ‘next REF’ (which from now on we will refer to as REF2020). In 2013, on behalf of the four UK Funding Councils, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) undertook a two-stage consultation exercise on open access requirements for articles submitted to REF2020. There are a number of nuances and caveats to the current proposals. This article will reflect on what the probable rules might be, and their implications for research managers, administrators and institutional repository managers alike.

Institutional repository management models that support faculty research dissemination

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.

Management of Indian institutional repositories

PurposeThe present study aims to investigate various issues concerning the management of institutional repositories (IRs) developed in India.Design/methodology/approachThe survey method was used. The data collection tool was a web questionnaire, which was created with the help of software provided by surveymonkey.com. The questionnaire was e‐mailed to the entire population i.e. all IRs identified in India.FindingsIt was observed that 79 per cent of the institutions had used the DSpace IR software package. The respondents considered end‐user interface to be the top‐ranking IR‐system feature. It was found that all IRs supported text (HTML, Postscript, PDF, Spreadsheet etc) file formats. Half of the respondents marked bitstream copying as a long‐term preservation strategy. Almost all institutional repositories were OAI‐PMH compliant.Research limitations/implicationsOnly Indian IRs were studied and the findings were compared with other studies.Originality/valueThis is the first detailed study focusing on the management aspects of IRs. The present study has identified the existence of 16 functional IRs, some of which were not registered in any of the directories such as ROAR or Open DOAR.

Automating the importation of a historic scientific serial into a digital repository

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe the transition of a collection in Texas A&M University's institutional repository from single item submission to batch importation as a primary method of ingest. This transition was made possible with assistance and technical work on behalf of the library.Design/methodology/approachThe digital initiatives staff examined the workflow of the collection's manager and submitters. A process was created to produce the necessary data structures for batch import from resources that were already being generated by the collection workflow.FindingsIt was found that batch importing assistance provided by the library improved the collection's growth rate and efficiency without interrupting the workflow of the collection management team.Practical implicationsThis paper demonstrates the benefit of libraries and other institutional repository hosts offering batch‐loading assistance to managers of large repository collections.Originality/valueThis paper should resonate with institutional repository managers and digital services librarians, as many have neglected to offer batch importing or other assistance to users citing a lack of resources.

Increasing the Productivity of Interactions Between Subject and Institutional Repositories

The Subject and Institutional Repositories Interactions Study (SIRIS) was undertaken for JISC in 2008 with a brief to produce a set of practical recommendations to improve interactions between institutional and subject repositories in the UK in respect to scholarly articles. The study was based on interviews with stakeholders and a questionnaire distributed to institutional repository managers. The different types of repository and their functional requirements are defined. The authors consider the reasons repositories interact and the types of interaction they might engage in. The current situation in the UK repository system is described. Key findings that emerged from the study concern achievement of critical mass, collection priorities, metadata, identifiers and versions, and the issue of trust as it affects engagement on the part of community members. The authors develop a number of scenarios for possible evolutions in repository interactions in the near future, organized around four key drivers: population of repositories, statistics and metrics, preservation, and aggregation of research outputs. The study's final report addressed seven recommendations to various stakeholder groups within the repository community: JISC, research funders, repository managers, publishers, content creators, and software developers. These recommendations concern standardization, best practice, and community engagement and dialogue.

Institutional repositories, self‐archiving and the role of the library

PurposeTo raise some unresolved questions about the practical implementation and management of institutional repositories – in particular, the level of resource needed to support the process of self‐deposit into institutional repositories.Design/methodology/approachAn opinion piece based on practitioner insights into their cataloguing practice and into digital preservation issues.FindingsThat metadata creation and the formulation of digital preservation policies for institutional repositories require significant resource, if they are to be carried out well. This level of resourcing may have been underestimated hitherto in the process of proselytising for institutional repositories.Research limitations/implicationsThis practice‐based supposition could be tested more rigorously by proper research investigation.Practical implicationsSuggests that libraries and librarians are well placed to give input to the metadata and digital preservation activities inherent in building institutional repositories. They should be resourced to give more attention to such tasks.Originality/valueThe paper tries to make a strong case for librarian‐mediated deposit rather than pure self‐archiving as the future of building institutional repositories.