Institutional repositories: assessing their value to the academic community

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate the development of institutional repositories in New Zealand, exploring factors affecting the adoption and success of institutional repositories from the perspective of the library managers who established them, and from the perspective of the academic community. Design/methodology/approach -Data from a series of interviews with library managers are compared with the findings from a randomised national survey of academics. Findings -The responses of the library managers suggest that they are positive about the value of their institutional repository, and the progress made towards recruiting content for it. Data from the survey of academics indicate that academics have been slow to embrace the concept of institutional repositories, and show little interest in using repositories for increasing the accessibility of their own work, or to access the work of others. The number of deposits remains low, mirroring patterns throughout the world, and subject or disciplinary repositories appear to have greater value to the academic community. Practical implications -The future long-term sustainability of institutional repositories depends on gaining a stronger commitment from the academic community, or developing different goals, against which their success might be measured. Originality/value -The study is the first random survey of academic staff across all disciplines, and an entire country, and the findings have a very high level of generalisability. IntroductionWith the growth of research and scholarly activity in the last decades of the twentieth century, existing channels for scholarly communication, particularly in the sciences and medicine, suffered from time lags in refereeing articles and publishing journals. Systems for distributing paper pre-prints by mail or facsimile were clumsy and slow, and researchers found it difficult to keep up with new developments in their fields. In the early 1990s, the rise of the internet made other communication and publishing options possible, starting with e-mail distribution, and then moving to the world wide web. The first web-based preprint server, arXiv, developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1991, was initially used for physics pre-preprints, and has subsequently been extended to include aspects of mathematics, computational linguistics, and neuroscience. Other disciplines subsequently adopted the arXiv model, the best-known examples of which are economics (EconPapers), and cognitive psychology (CogPrints).At the same time, journal subscription costs were increasing significantly, particularly in science and medicine (White and Creaser, 2004). Many libraries responded by cancelling subscriptions, and, as a result, researchers were losing access to

Undercounting File Downloads from Institutional Repositories

“…"Without understanding the significance of this service, the value of such programs may be underestimated and, consequently, funds to ensure IR survival and growth may dwindle" (Burns, Lana, & Budd, 2013). Researchers acknowledge that specific forms of measure must vary based on local needs and audience, and some assessors of IR success place less emphasis on hard metrics, noting instead that IR managers may measure their success in the comprehensiveness and growth of their repositories, and giving credence to downloads only insofar as their general ability to show "use" (Cullen & Chawner, 2010). Most of the literature about IR assessment does focus on collecting and reporting quantitative metrics to help make the case for IR value, "Metrics for repositories can be used to provide a better understanding of how repositories are being used, which can help to inform policy decisions on future investment" .…”

Digital repositories ten years on: what do scientific researchers think of them and how do they use them?

“…9 However, academics generally seem to be keener on using subject repositories than institutional ones. 10 Many academics use alternatives to institutional repositories to make their publications available, such as their personal web pages and disciplinary repositories. 9 As a mixed-method study across Europe found out, there are also clear differences between scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds in their understanding of open access repositories and their motivations for depositing articles within them.…”

Measuring the gap between perceived importance and actual performance of institutional repositories

“…It plays a role in development of group perceptions, coordination of group activities and decision-making, and the balance of individual and organizational interests. Top management support in areas such as policy, funding, and digital preservation is important to show the level of commitment to IR implementation (Biehl, 2007;Cullen & Chawner, 2010;Fowler & Horan, 2007). According to McCord (2003), administrative commitment and support are vital for successful IR implementation of preservation and also management of digital rights and policies.…”