Digital repositories and the future of preservation and use of scientific knowledge

Information and communication technology has a great influence on scientific communication and work of scientists. Ways in which research is conducted have changed; science has become more highly collaborative; network-based, and data-intensive. The existing system of scientific publishing is experiencing pressure for change under the influence of the exponential growth of information production, the dramatic increase in subscription fees, the increasing storage cost of printed documents, and the increasing power and availability of digital technology.

To conduct their research more effectively scientists need modern resources of digital information which would support their endeavor. Digital repository is one such type of information resources. Digital repository is an institutional digital archive of the intellectual product created by the faculty, research staff, and students of an institution and accessible to end users both within and outside of the institution.

Digital repositories carry a great potential for the advancement of scientific research. Digital repositories can store different file formats and types of content. An institutional digital repository can contain e-prints of scientific papers, research data, but also e-learning materials and other forms of institutional intellectual outputs. As the number of open access digital repositories grows, it has become evident that institutional repositories are now clearly and broadly being recognized as essential infrastructure for scholarship in the digital world.

URL : http://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=99976

Institutional Repositories Features Architecture Design and Implementation Technologies…

Institutional Repositories: Features, Architecture, Design and Implementation Technologies :

“Europe is the leading continent in terms of active adoption and use of Digital Libraries – particularly Institutional Repositories (IRs). Africa has not done poorly in this area with a steady increase from 19 repositories in 2008 to 46 in January, 2011 but there is need to raise awareness and channel efforts towards making IRs easily accessible to Africans through ubiquitous channels such as hand-helds and mobile devices. This paper reviews the features, architecture, design and implementation technologies of IRs. In addition, it highlights viable research areas that can be pursued by African researchers in the field of Digital Libraries. It also encourages research efforts to focus on areas that will be beneficial to Africa.”

URL : http://eprints.covenantuniversity.edu.ng/108/

Trends of the Institutional Repositories on Agricultural Universities…

Trends of the Institutional Repositories on Agricultural Universities in Japan :

This paper discusses the present status of institutional repositories in Agricultural Universities in Japan as found in a survey conducted in January 2010. There are over seventy of agricultural universities in Japan which include the broad areas related to agriculture such as the faculty and graduate schools of Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine, Life Science, Fisheries Sciences, Agricultural Resource Sciences, Horticulture, Marine Science and Technology, Textile Science and Technology, and Environmental Studies. The experimental project of institutional repositories was started in 2004 and since then, over 100 universities have joined the National Institute of Informatics Institutional Repositories Program. The contents of institutional repositories consist of journal articles, dissertations, bulletins, meeting articles, documents for meetings, books, technical reports, magazine articles, preprints, learning materials, data/datasets, software and other materials. The number and type of contents of institutional repositories differ between each agricultural university. The future direction of institutional repositories of agricultural universities in Japan is also discussed and concludes the paper.

URL : http://journals.sfu.ca/iaald/index.php/aginfo/article/view/202

La bibliométrie un nouveau cap pour une archive…

La bibliométrie : un nouveau cap pour une archive institutionnelle :

“En complément de ses objectifs de diffusion et de conservation, Archimer, l’archive institutionnelle de l’Ifremer, offre un ensemble d’outils bibliométriques. Dès l’enregistrement, de nombreux automatismes homogénéisent les informations (noms d’auteurs, organismes, affiliation interne…), gage de qualité des analyses bibliométriques.

Archimer permet le calcul automatique de plusieurs indicateurs définis entre l’Ifremer et ses Ministères de Tutelles dans le cadre de son contrat quadriennal. Il offre également des éléments d’analyses de sa production documentaire (ex : répartition de la valeur des facteurs d’impacts des revues, évolution du nombre de citations des publications, présentation des collaborations internationales…).

La centralisation de cette production documentaire dans Archimer permettra ainsi l’abandon d’une multitude de systèmes actuellement utilisés par les différentes unités de recherche pour assurer ces fonctions. C’est donc un gain de productivité autant que de fiabilité qui est attendu.”

URL : http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00031/14253/

Discovering the Information Needs of Humanists When Planning…

Discovering the Information Needs of Humanists When Planning an Institutional Repository :

“Through in-person interviews with humanities faculty members, this study examines what information needs are expressed by humanities scholars that an institutional repository (IR) can address. It also asks what concerns humanists have about IRs, and whether there is a repository model other than an institutional one that better suits how they work. Humanists make relatively low use of existing IRs, but this research indicates that an institutional repository can offer services to humanities faculty that are desired by them, especially the digitization, online storage, curation, and sharing of their research materials and publications. If presented in terms that make sense to humanities faculty, and designed consciously with their needs and concerns in mind, an IR can be of real benefit to their teaching, scholarship, collaborations, and publishing.”

URL : http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march11/seaman/03seaman.html

Characterising and Preserving Digital Repositories: File Format Profiles

Steve Hitchcock and David Tarrant show how file format profiles, the starting point for preservation plans and actions, can also be used to reveal the fingerprints of emerging types of institutional repositories.

URL : http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue66/hitchcock-tarrant/