Building repositories

Iryna Kuchma, eIFL Open Access program manager, eIFL.netPresented at “Open Access: Maximising Research Impact” workshop,

May 25 2009,

Birzeit University Library, Palestine

How to start

A repository Steering Group (or Project Board, Management Committee,

Working Group, etc.) undertakes the high level management

of a repository on behalf of a Higher Education Institution.

How to start 2

Involve key stakeholders: University administrators,

senior management and policy makers; academic staff,

library staff, technical support staff,

other support staff.

Assumptions 1Proposed checklist for the implementation

of an Institutional Repository (IR)Developed by the Department of Library Services

in the University of Pretoria, South Africa

1. Management has approved the implementation of an institutional repository

(IR) (Proposal).

Assumptions 2

2. A server is in place to host the IR.

3. An IR Manager (project leader) has been identified to manage the project – and will

have to do most of the work initially.

Activity 1

1. Assign a project leader (IR Manager), and identify members

to form part of the implementation team (e.g. external consultant, copyright officer,

metadata specialist/ head cataloguer, digitization specialist, 2-3 subject librarians,

IT etc.).

Activity 2

2. Identify 1 to 4 champions to work with initially.

Involve them in your meetings and make them part

of the implementation team.

Activity 3

3. Conduct a needs analysis & compile a needs analysis report.

Activity 4

4. Evaluate available software and decide on which software to use.

5. Join existing mailing lists.

Activity 5

6. Start thinking of a name for the IR.

The planning checklists 1(adaptation from the Repository Support Project, the UK:

http://www.rsp.ac.uk/) Here are the questions to ask yourself:

1. What is an institutional repository and what does it mean to you?

2. Have you outlined and documented the purpose and drivers for institutional repository

establishment in your institution?

3. Have you defined your vision and initial goals?

The planning checklists 2

4. Have you decided how to position your institutional repository within your wider

information environment?

5. What is the target content of the repository?

6. Do you have an institution wide intellectual property rights policy?

The planning checklists 3

7. Do any of your Departments already have other digital stores of publications? How will you manage duplication, transfer of

resources and metadata, etc.?

8. Does your institution have an information management strategy?

The planning checklists 4

9. Have you defined roles and responsibilities for your institutional repository

development?

10. What sort of statistics and management reports will you want from your institutional

repository?

Activity 6

7. Decide on how communities and collections will be structured within the IR.

8. Define the workflows.

9. Discuss licensing & copyright issues with the legal department.

Activity 7

10. Compile a business plan & present to management.

11. Register project with IT & and establish a service level agreement.

Activity 8

12. Incorporate IR as part of role description for cataloguers & subject librarians.

13. Start working on IR policy, and continue to document all important decisions taken.

Also address service definition, open access, copyright, preservation, metadata

standards, digitization, selection criteria etc.

The planning checklists 5

11. Have you decided if and how you will collect usage and item download statistics for your

repository? Will you use a tool built into your chosen repository, or an external tool

or repository add-on?

The planning checklists 6

12. Have you decided how your institutional repository users will be authenticated?

13. Have you defined your metadata requirements and set up an appropriate

schema?

The planning checklists 7

14. Have you checked your metadata meets the required standards for interoperability?

15. Have you considered the workflows within

your institutional repository and set up appropriate mechanisms to deal with

incoming content?

Activity 9

14. Identify members which will participate in the evaluation, and present a training session on how

to use the software.

15. IT deploys software on developmental server, implementation team and other role players evaluate, and IR manager forward evaluation

report containing requests for changes (e.g. to submission form) to IT Unit.

Activity 10

16. IT deploys software on developmental server for the second time, implementation team and other

role players evaluate, and IR manager forward evaluation report containing requests for changes

to IT Unit. It could be necessary that the deployment on the developmental server has to be

tested for a third time.

Activity 11

17. IT deploys software on quality assurance server, implementation team and other role players evaluate, and IR manager forward evaluation

report containing requests for changes to IT Unit. It could be necessary that the deployment on the quality assurance server has to be tested for a

second time.

Activity 12

18. IT deploys software on production server, implementation team and other role players evaluate, and IR manager forward evaluation

report containing requests for changes to IT Unit. Keep on testing until software is flawless.

19. Create Communities & Collections for champions, and populate in order to demonstrate to library

staff and community.

Activity 13

20. Register IR with international harvesters, search engines, have it listed on web pages

etc.

21. Start developing a marketing ppt (which can be customized for specific subject areas), marketing pamphlets, training material,

online help e.g. copyright clearance process.

Activity 14

22. Introduce IR to Library Management.

23. Introduce IR to Library Steering Committee.

26. Introduce IR to library staff.

Activity 15

27. Provide training to subject librarians (Collection Administrators).

28. Provide training to Submitters (appoint students etc if necessary funds are available).

29. Provide training to cataloguers (Metadata Editors).

Activity 16

30. Establish the following (will replace initial implementation team):

-        IR Steering Committee-         IR Policy Advisory Group

-         IR User Group

Activity 17

31. Introduce IR to rest of community e.g. departments, individuals, etc.

Also host open sessions over lunch hour, use organizational newsletters,

present at conferences, road shows etc. Negotiate for submitters.

Activity 18

32. Invite all to register new collections. Communicate procedure on e.g. IR home page.

33. Frequently communicate with IR team, e.g. via e-mail, monthly newsletter, etc. Frequently

communicate statistics.

34. Launch IR when ready … Invite principal, vice-principals, heads of faculties & departments, other

major role players, etc.

Activity 19

35. Budget each year and plan for the following year. Keep monitoring server capacity,

stay updated through mailing lists & reading articles, attending conferences etc.

SustainabilityThis planning checklist covers resourcing repositories

for sustainability. (adaptation from the Repository Support Project, the UK:

http://www.rsp.ac.uk/) Here are the questions to ask yourself:

1. Have you properly and fully specified the requirements of your repository?

2. What is the anticipated growth of your repository?

3. Are you running a pilot project or a production service? If the former, who, when, if and how will it

transfer to a production service?

Sustainability 2

4. Who will answer support/help desk queries relating to the repository?

5. Have you considered how your repository may grow over the next year, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years?

6. Which digital formats can the repository commit to preserve in the longer-term?

Is the repository collecting author source formats? Is there a viable action plan for monitoring the formats

stored in the repository and the preservation risks associated with those formats?

Do you know which tools are available to do this?

Thank you!Questions?

Iryna Kuchmairyna.kuchma[at]eifl.net; www.eifl.net

The presentation is licensed with Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License