Scholarly Communication Librarian Northeastern University New Roles for Technical Services Staff in Supporting a Digital Repository Hillary Corbett Scholarly Communication Librarian Northeastern University November 30, 2011

A Little About Me I have a Technical Services background… I started at Northeastern in 2005 as a supervisor of copy cataloging, serials management, and physical processing, managing 5 support staff. In 2009 I moved from Tech Services into the newly created position of Scholarly Communication Librarian. Now I have no staff but I still need help!

Some Libraries Have… Digital Repository Manager Digital Repository Resident Digital Repository Librarian Digital Repository Assistant Digital Collections / University Repository Librarian Librarian for Digital Scholarship Initiatives 4.5 FTE Repository Staff (!)

At Northeastern University: Repository has been in existence since 2006 No dedicated repository staffing I am the “repository coordinator” – manage traffic flow between depositors, metadata folks, policy setters, techies, service providers But, this is just one of the things I do So, I rely on staff in other departments to keep the repository up-to-date

Electronic Theses & Dissertations Northeastern moved to an ETD program in 2008 We no longer accept print copies in the library Volume: ~150 dissertations/master’s theses per year Majority come in January and June How does an ETD get to us? Student submits it to ProQuest Graduate program coordinator approves it ProQuest adds ETD to their database and sends it as a zip file to our FTP site

Electronic Theses & Dissertations Resource Management staff: Monitor e-mail account for ProQuest notifications Get ETD(s) from FTP site and deposit them into our repository using metadata provided by student 4 support staff; approx. 5-10 hours per week total (peak); less during off-peak periods Metadata Management staff: Monitor e-mail account for deposit notifications Review deposited ETD(s) for metadata accuracy and compliance with our standards 2 professional staff; approx. 1-3 hours per week

The shared e-mail account:

The Process: From this…

…to this…

…to this!

Electronic Theses & Dissertations Benefits for Repository: ETDs are deposited more quickly Accuracy generally improved by multi-person review Benefits for Technical Services Staff: Gain experience with Dublin Core/XML Work with document type traditionally handled in Archives/Special Collections Collaborative, interdepartmental work environment

Electronic Theses & Dissertations Challenges: Not staff’s primary area of responsibility or expertise Supervision outside reporting lines Not always going to be their top priority Is multi-person review too much?

Future Considerations How much should the library be involved in repository metadata? Will more advanced technical skills be required? (eg. more than just a passing knowledge of XML) Can/should ETD deposits be automated? And if so, will staff be called upon to help with other kinds of repository work?

Other Opportunities for Tech Services Staff Reviewing publishers’ copyright policies Depositing faculty publications Assisting liaison librarians as document collectors Helping faculty/researchers develop or adapt ontologies for their work Harvesting university publications from website Digitizing publications in physical formats

Thank You! Hillary Corbett Scholarly Communication Librarian Northeastern University Boston, MA h.corbett@neu.edu