New Roles New Responsibilities Examining Training Needs of…

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New Roles, New Responsibilities: Examining Training Needs of Repository Staff:

INTRODUCTION : Institutional repositories play a critical role in the research lifecycle. Funding agencies are increasingly seeking an improved return on their investment in research. Repositories facilitate this process by providing storage of, and access to, institutional research outputs and, more recently, research data. While repositories are generally managed within the academic library, repository staff require different skills and knowledge compared with traditional library roles. This study reports on a survey of Australasian institutional repository staff to identify skills and knowledge sets.

METHODS :Institutional repository staff working at universities in Australia and New Zealand were invited to participate in an online survey which incorporated both open and closed-ended question types.

RESULTS :The survey found significant gaps in the current provision of formal training and coursework related to institutional repositories, which echoed findings in the United Kingdom, Italy, and the United States.

DISCUSSION :There is clearly a need for more and varied training opportunities for repository professionals. Repository work requires a specific set of skills that can be difficult to find and institutions will benefit from investing in training and ongoing development opportunities for repository staff.

CONCLUSION :The data from this study could be used to facilitate staff recruitment, development, training, and retention strategies.”

URL : http://jlsc-pub.org/jlsc/vol1/iss2/7/

Fostering New Roles for Librarians Skills Set for…

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Fostering New Roles for Librarians: Skills Set for Repository Managers — Results of a Survey in Italy :

“The open access movement in scholarly communication has grown considerably over the last ten years and it has driven an increase in the number of institutional repositories (IRs). New professional roles and skills had to be developed to secure effective IR management.

Collection developmente expertise and metadata curation are regarded as strategic roles for repositories and therefore it is only logical for the library and information community to take on the responsibility for managing these digital archives. However, it has become clear that traditional librarian skills do not suffice anymore to run successful repositories. A richer set of skills is needed, including management and communication skills, technical skills, and expertise with regard to access rights and preservation of digital content.

Referring to the work carried out by the SHERPA Project in the UK with regard to the skills set for repository staff, the authors performed a survey among repository managers in Italy to assess the educational and professional background of the repository managers and the skills set required to implement successful institutional repositories.

The survey findings show that the professional profile of the repository manager is a multiform and complex one. It requires cross-functional and highly specialised competencies. Italian repository managers are of the opinion that the skills required to promote the repository within the institution and those required to deal with copyright issues as the most essential skills repository managers should acquire and be trained for. Collection development and metadata expertise, familiarity with project management and expertise in repository workflow design are also highly rated. Technical skills are needed to deal with interoperability standards and protocols.

In Italy academic curricula do not meet the repository managers’ educational needs. Academic programmes should be developed to include communication, project management and team work skills and pay more attention to copyright issues. Until that time repository managers will have to spend a considerable part of their working lives on professional training and self-directed learning.”

URL : http://liber.library.uu.nl/publish/issues/2011-3_4/index.html?000553

Approaches to Marketing an Institutional Repository to Campus…

Approaches to Marketing an Institutional Repository to Campus :

“Marketing is an activity that is integral to the growth and use of a campus
institutional repository (IR). But what kinds of marketing activities do libraries engage in to advertise the new services associated with an IR? This chapter summarizes basic marketing principles and describes
the application of those principles as they relate to marketing an institutional repository within a higher education setting.”

URL : http://works.bepress.com/marisa_ramirez/17/

Building Social Networks from Institutional Repositories An…

Building Social Networks from Institutional Repositories :

“An Institutional Repository may o er a .set of services. to its local users, supporting the publication of research. More importantly, the repository also forms a key component in the global scholarly communications environment. In this presentation we investigate the role of the repository on a global scale by witnessing the e ects on a changing economy and also show how worldwide collaboration networks can be predicted using the strong social links found in repository metadata.”

URL : http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/22683/

Trends in Large-Scale Subject Repositori…

Trends in Large-Scale Subject Repositories :

“Noting a lack of broad empirical studies on subject repositories, the authors investigate subject repository trends that reveal common practices despite their apparent isolated development. Data collected on year founded, subjects, software, content types, deposit policy, copyright policy, host, funding, and governance are analyzed for the top ten most-populated subject repositories. Among them, several trends exist such as a multi- and interdisciplinary scope, strong representation in the sciences and social sciences, use of open source repository software for newer repositories, acceptance of pre- and post-prints, moderated deposits, submitter responsibility for copyright, university library or departmental hosting, and discouraged withdrawal of materials. In addition, there is a loose correlation between repository size and age. Recognizing the diversity of all subject repositories, the authors recommend that tools for assessment and evaluation be developed to guide subject repository management to best serve their respective communities.”

URL : http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november10/adamick/11adamick.html