The Concoct of Digital Preservation in Open Access

Abstract

Research pursuit in Open Access (OA) has become a center of interest in academic institutions. Academic institutions and publishers have been energetically working hard towards achieving strategic and sustained partnerships in providing OA to information resources. While the work of strengthening these endeavours is ongoing, very little have been done on the logistics for digital preservation of OA resources in Institutional Repositories. This chapter explores digital preservation processes in OA using the University of Botswana Research, Innovation, and Scholarship Archive (UBRISA) as a case study. The chapter establishes the implementation activities, the outcomes, and challenges experienced by UBRISA. The findings reveal that the UBRISA commits to strategically capturing and preserving the intellectual output, raw data, and historic values of the institution for posterity. The UBRISA is challenged by limited budgets, logistical challenges, and limited expertise. This chapter recommends that partnerships and advocacy for legislative structures that support OA are critical.