Institutional Repositories Exploration of Costs and Value …

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Institutional Repositories: Exploration of Costs and Value :

“Little is known about the costs academic libraries incur to implement and manage institutional repositories and the value these institutional repositories offer to their communities. To address this, the authors report the findings of their 29 question survey of academic libraries with institutional repositories. We received 49 usable responses. Thirty-four of these responses completed the entire survey. While meant to be exploratory, results are varied and depend on the context of the institution. This context includes, among other things, the size of the repositories and of the institutions, the software used to operate the repositories, such as open source or proprietary, and whether librarians mediate content archiving, or content producers directly deposit their own material. The highlights of our findings, based on median values, suggest that institutions that mediate submissions incur less expense than institutions that allow self-archiving, institutions that offer additional services incur greater annual operating costs than those who do not, and institutions that use open source applications have lower implementation costs but comparable annual operating costs with institutions that use proprietary solutions. Furthermore, changes in budgeting, from special initiative to absorption into the regular budget, suggest a trend in sustainable support for institutional repositories. Our findings are exploratory but suggest that future inquiry into costs and the value of institutional repositories should be directed at specific types of institutions, such as by Carnegie Classification category.”

URL : http://www.dlib.org/dlib/january13/burns/01burns.html

Implementing Open Access Policies Using Institutional Repositories …

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Implementing Open Access Policies : Using Institutional Repositories :

“Implementing an open access (OA) policy off ers libraries an unusually high level of challenge. Chris Armbruster, who surveyed early policy implementers says that “open access policy implementation is a tough job. Policy pioneers have faced considerable challenges in meeting their own aims and achieving recognized success.”1 But the implementation process also off ers a proportionally high potential for positive payback not just to the campuses, but to the academy and the world beyond. Given this level of challenge and potential impact, libraries would do well to confer with those who have travelled further down the path, in order to maximize their chances for success. Yet not much has been written to date about policy implementation, no doubt because this task is so new to libraries.”

URL : http://www.ala.org/alcts/sites/ala.org.alcts/files/content/resources/papers/ir_ch05_.pdf

Evaluation of Three Open Source Software in Terms…

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Evaluation of Three Open Source Software in Terms of Managing Repositories of Electronic Theses and Dissertations: A Comparison Study :

“Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs), as a new generation of scholarship resources, are gradually increasing in number and quality at higher academic institutions. Meanwhile, by introducing various types of software solutions for managing Institutional Repositories (IRs), selection of appropriate solutions has become a timeconsuming process for institutions. The goal of this paper was to appraise 59 features of three widely utilized open source IR solutions (DSpace, EPrints, Fedora) from the perspective of managing ETDs, via an in-depth evaluation of their important functionalities in this regard. For this purpose, all applications were installed and the features were tested in a test-bed environment (a benchmark machine) with a predefined set of ETD collections and registered users. Findings related to assessment of each feature were presented in the tabular format. Our comparison indicated that, although all three solutions are capable of managing ETD systems, in most of the comparative areas that are vital for an ETD repository DSpace was ahead of EPrints and Fedora.”

URL : http://goo.gl/5skl9

Sustainability: Scholarly Repository as an Enterprise

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The expanding need for an open information sharing infrastructure to promote scholarly communication led to the pioneering establishment of arXiv.org, now maintained by the Cornell University Library. To be sustainable, the repository requires careful, long term planning for services, management and funding. The library is developing a sustainability model for arXiv, based on voluntary contributions and the ongoing participation and support of 200 libraries and research laboratories around the world. The sustainability initiative is based on a membership model and builds on arXiv’s technical, service, financial and policy infrastructure.

Five principles for sustainability drive development, starting with deep integration into the scholarly community. Also key are a clearly defined mandate and governance structure, a stable yet innovative technology platform, systematic creation of content policies and strong business planning strategies. Repositories like arXiv must consider usability and lifecycle alongside values and trends in scholarly communication. To endure, they must also support and enhance their service by securing and managing resources and demonstrating responsible stewardship.

URL : http://arxiv.org/abs/1510.00322

Jarrow Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Software Collecting…

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Jarrow, Electronic Thesis, and Dissertation Software :

“Collecting and disseminating theses and dissertations electronically is not a new concept. Tools and platforms have emerged to handle various components of the submission and distribution process. However, there is not a tool that handles the entirety of the process from the moment the student begins work on their thesis to the dissemination of the final thesis. The authors have created such a tool which they have called Jarrow. After reviewing available open-source software for theses submission and open-source institutional repository software this paper discusses why and how Jarrow was created and how it works. Jarrow can be downloaded and the project followed at http://code.library.unbc.ca .”

URL : http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/7486

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/