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