Institutional Repositories

["Richard Poynder" <aotg20@dsl.pipex.com>]

** apologies for cross-posting **

Hi All,

I am aware that the concept of "the institutional repository" (IR) tends 
to mean different things to different people, so I would be interested in 
hearing people's views on the topic.

Amongst the different roles I have heard people argue that IRs can/should 
play are:

  a) as a repository for a university's research output, with the aim of 
increasing access to that research, and so enhancing its impact

  b) as a tool for preserving and curating a university's research output

  c) as a tool to assist a university in its digital publishing ambitions, 
and

  d) as a tool to enable universities offer digital courseware and online 
learning services.

Would others agree that IRs are viewed as potentially assisting in all 
these tasks?

Are there other tasks people see being assigned to IRs?

Can an IR play a number of different roles simultaneously, or should it be 
restricted to just one (possibly two) roles? What are the pros and cons of 
using an IR to play more than one role?

Also, what solutions are people choosing when setting up IRs? I am aware 
that there are now a number of software and service providers (both for 
profit and non-profit), including Eprints, DSpace, Fedora, ProQuest and 
BMC. But what are people's views on the roles these different providers 
can/should play? Are they playing them well?

Finally, I am also curious as to the current state of play in the major 
universities (Stanford, Yale, University of California, MIT, CalTech, 
Harvard, Oxford, Cambridge etc. etc.). I assume they all now have IRs up 
and running, but what sort of IRs are they creating, what solutions are 
they choosing when creating them, what roles are being assigned to these 
IRs, and how are these universities going about populating them with the 
institution's research output?


Richard Poynder
Freelance Journalist
www.richardpoynder.com
http://poynder.blogspot.com