The Future of Scholarship in the Digital Age:

The Role of Institutional Repositories

Ann J. Wolpert

Director of Libraries

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Scholarly communication is in transition

Publication is only one part of the network-enabled “system”

Disciplines are experimenting

Traditional outlets are constrained

New formats present preservation challenges

Required responsibilities not yet defined

Increasing amounts of intellectual output have no print analog.

The digital genie is out of the bottle in all disciplines.

Digital and print need new, interoperable management and access models.

Educational content is increasingly digital in format.

Digital is still frighteningly fragile

The scholarly communications system must work for all.

Disciplines can change their assessments and procedures.Universities can change their standards for judging impact.Authors can use contracts that enhance reader access.Publishers can work for more rational economics for book publishing.Editors can accept responsibility for the cost of their journals.

To support a new model, new tools are required.

To share innovation and information To assure affordability and access To build “the record” in new formatsTo preserve “the record” in new formatsTo sustain teaching using new tools and techniquesTo protect university investments

Institutional Repositories offer part of the solution

A tool for faculty and institutions

Institution-based counterweight

Scholarly and educational material in digital formats

Cumulative and perpetual

Open and interoperable

Why Libraries?

Expertise Large-scale collection management

Assessment/collection policies preservation

Metadata Solid business practices

Commitment and reputation Long time frames Mission scope

DSpace was designed for broad adoption from the start.

MIT Libraries/Hewlett Packard Research Labs collaborative development projectBroad vs deepFederation model with support from Mellon FoundationPreservation archiveOpen SourceAgnostic as to content145 repositories worldwide, 4000+ downloads

DSpace Offerings

Large-scale, stable, managed long-term storage

Support for range of digital formats

Easy-to-use submission process

Persistent network identifiers

Access control

Search and delivery interface

Initially imagined content

Preprints, articles

Technical Reports

Working Papers

Conference Papers

E-theses

Datasets statistical, geospatial,

matlab, etc.

Images visual, scientific, etc.

Audio files

Video files

Learning Objects

Reformatted digital library collections

In fact, institutional repositories reflect the interests of the host

Student portfolios

Theses and dissertations

Preprints

Digitized library collections

Working papers

Institutional “branding” and/or reach Intellectual and/or Innovation

Challenges

Faculty Acceptance Valuing and trusting an institutional archive Myriad disciplines with different cultures Copyright/IP opinions and policies

Library Culture Policies Operations

Publisher responses Clamp down Loosen up Legislation/regulation

Sustainability

What’s next for DSpace and other Institutional Repositories?

Digital preservation Digital files (e.g. audio, video, image, text) Web sites (e.g. W3C) Software programs

Enhanced access and usability Indexing and Search engines Interoperability: course systems & desktops

Federation and economic sustainabilityPatience, persistence, collaboration

http://www.dspace.org