institutional repositories and records management: overlaps, obstacles & opportunities jackie...

Institutional repositories and records management: overlaps, obstacles & opportunities

Jackie Knowles

Repository Support Officer

Steve Bailey

Senior Advisor, JISC infoNet

Contents/Intro

What is a repository?

The repository scene

The JISC perspective

Institutional repositories• Stakeholders• Benefits• Typical content• Functionality

Key issues

The future

What is a repository?

At root they are mechanism for managing and storing digital content.

But should be considered more as a set of services which are offered to the academic community.

Repositories can be institutional or subject based.

Repositories worldwide

Repository growth over time

Distribution by country

Repositories in the UK

JISC investment in repositories

JISC have a repositories and preservation programme through which they are making a £14m investment in Higher Education repository and digital content infrastructure.

Heery, R. and Powell, A. (2006) Digital Repositories Roadmap: Looking Forwardhttp://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/rep-roadmap-v15.doc Accessed 3rd December 2007.

JISC investment in repositories

Main initiatives• cross-searching facilities across repositories• funding for institutions to develop a critical mass of

content• preservation solutions• advice for the development of repositories.

Funding lots of projects and research.

The RSP

Repositoryestablishment

Technical SupportDSpace

&ePrints

High-level advocacy

Presentations / materialsaimed at senior managers

Grassroots advocacy

Presentations / materialsfor researchers / teachers

Encourage use

Presentations / materialsfor researchers / teachers

Encourage re-use

Presentations / materialsfor service providers

Repository Administrators Support to run repositories (e.g. preservation)

High level representation Funding councils / publishers etc

The RSP

co-ordinate and deliver good practice

provide guidance and advice

Activities• Outreach programme• On-site support• Enquiry service• Web site• Briefing papers

So back to Institutional repositories

Institutional repositories are concerned with intellectual output …• Collecting• Preserving• Managing• Accessibility• Re-use

Based on open standards

Main repository features

Submission forms

User area

Licences & terms and conditions

Metadata records

Full text of items (optional)

Search and browse functionality

Quick demo

Cadair - http://cadair.aber.ac.uk/dspace/

Demo

Harvesting

Most traffic coming to an IR comes via Google and other search engines.

Harvesting and exposure of information to the wider world is a key element.

So cannot talk for very long about repositories before mentioning Open Access …

Open Access

Traditional research publishing• Publically funded but readership limited by economies.• Authors signing away rights.• Publisher monopolies.

Open access • Encourages a wider use of information assets and increases

citations.• Makes information freely accessible to anyone in the world using

an internet connection.• Potential readership is far, far greater than that for articles where

the full-text is restricted to subscribers.

Key stakeholders in a repository

Senior management

Academics as authors

Academics as users

Repository staff

Library, IT and other support staff

Publishers

Funding agencies

General public

Benefits to institutions

Management• Marketing showcase• Collection stewardship

• Consistency of data collected• Economies of scale

• Preservation• Management information tool

• RAE• QAA audit

• Competitor analysis tool

Benefits to authors

Academic authors• Visibility• Impact• Recognition• Usage feedback• Discussion• Collaboration• Career development

Typical repository content

Preprints

Postprints

Datasets

Learning objects

Videos

Sound files

Images

Theses

Dissertations

Royalty publications

Conference papers

Technical reports

Grey literature

Administrative documents

Types of content in UK repositories

Administrative documents

Main focus of repository development to date has been on research outputs and theses

Although JISC funding has gone towards some records management specific projects• Kings College London

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/projects/jiscrec/

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/blogs/committee-zone/• University of Plymouth Repository

Others?

A note about preservation

The accessibility agenda is more prominent in the repository community - at the moment.

… someone else will deal with it!

National solutions?

Preservation policies are encouraged

http://www.opendoar.org/tools/en/policies.php

What are the issues?

For senior managers:• Resources• Awareness• Culture change• Policy framework

• Mandates

What are the issues?

For academic authors:• Awareness• Rights (confusion and misinformation)• Time

• Complexity of metadata required• Final versions of their papers

• Difficulty• Apathy

What are the issues?

For repository staff:• Awareness• Defining a metadata schema• Defining workflows and the level of mediation needed

for submission• Managing copyright and intellectual property rights• Advocacy

Challenges for the sector

Lots of material we could collect

Lots of different stakeholders

Institutions often have multi-centred power hubs

To mandate or not to mandate

Defining success …. the numbers game!

Top UK repositories

Cambridge (189,216)

Southampton (27,328)

Open University (5,986)

UK average about 300

Aberystwyth (274 items)

Challenges for the sector

The cultural challenge is uppermost in people’s minds• Embedding this in the academic or institutional

workflow

But … technology is moving forward• Web 2.0

The balancing act

Technology

Organisation Resources

The future

Lots of best practice and case studies out there

Tools are available, for example• Romeo & Juliet• OpenDoar Policies Tool

Repository community now being established

JISC is making a significant investment in this area

Help and support mechanisms emerging, such as the RSP!

Repositories at your institutions

Handout

Over to Steve…

Background (a personal perspective)

C.2003 ‘Sudden’ and ‘rapid’ rise in profile of the repository agenda within JISC

A watching brief maintained + formal/informal discussions with those responsible

Always with a series of questions in mind:• What is the overlap with RM, now & in the future?• Are we trying to achieve the same things?• Is it a threat, opportunity or irrelevance to RM?• To what extent do repositories need RM & how do we

prevent them re-inventing the wheel?

Findings

There are fundamental differences:• Drivers (open access etc)• Reflected in technical priorities (inter-operability not

retention mgt for example)• Standards• Practitioner community • User community?• Content?

But there is also much in common…

Similarities

Both:• relate to the management of information• are primarily concerned with internal information• require a combination of technology, policies,

procedures & user behaviour• rely on the participation & engagement of the user• involve resource discovery • impose centrally-determined controls around the

behaviour of information• May require access to digital content in the medium-

long term

Key RM questions & concerns which may (should?) be of interest to the IR

community

Regardless of their content…

Controlling the content

How is the content of an IR defined & by whom?

When in its lifecycle is content deemed appropriate for inclusion?• E.g. drafts or final content

Who is able to add content?

Regulating retention

Who defines how long the contents should be retained?

Based on what criteria?

Is this consistent with the corporate retention schedule?

Is the deletion process controlled, complete and auditable?

Preserving the provenance

How is the link preserved between the content and the process which created it?

How is the link preserved between content in the repository & related content held elsewhere?

How is the provenance of who created the content, when, why & how captured?

Other RM considerations

Where is the metadata sourced from?• Free text?• Internal pick list?• Shared, verifiable external resource?

Protecting the evidential value• Ensuring qualities of authenticity, integrity & non-

repudiation

Preservation planning• Appropriate choice of format, media, strategy etc• Appraisal: identifying what is worth preserving

Possible areas of overlap (competition?)

IR ‘scope creep’ into capturing business records• Project proposals, grant applications, financial reporting…

Institutional Repository vs EDRMS• Should this content be in / managed by your EDRMS?• Or will they be two separate stove-pipes

IR’s may beat RM for resources• More directly relevant to core institutional activity• Direct backing from important stakeholders (RC/FCs)• Heavy backing from JISC & others

• Build a national infrastructure of interoperable digital repositories (addressing  institutional, subject and learning object repositories)

Summary

Work on institutional repositories is, or will be, happening within your institution

They may need your help

We may well have the answers to some of their problems

There may be issues regarding respective scopes & remits to be resolved…and soon

There may be opportunities for records managers to increase their profile & impact

Questions, comment, discussion & next steps…

Jackie Knowles

jak@aber.ac.uk