Institutional Repositories: Defining Local Needs & Developing Local Implementation Strategies Susan Gibbons Digital Initiatives Librarian University of Rochester

Impetus for Repository- Fall 2000 Provost Crisis in Scholarly Publishing Students want ETDs (electronic theses and dissertations) Faculty’s growing interest in pre-print archives and electronic publishing

Defining Local Requirements Examine what others are doing Academic peers Similar physical orientation Similar organizational structure Similar research and curriculum

Defining Local Requirements Discover unique, local requirements though pilot projects- Spring 2001 Used ePrints, open-source software 2 pilot projects- ETDs and faculty repository Recruited content from faculty and students Participation in IT committees & roundtables Professor’s homepages “Sympathetic” disciplines Collaboration with IT division

FYI- the dandelion is the official flower of the University of Rochester

Defining Local Requirements What we discovered Lots of policy issues Access issues Preservation issues Monitoring of collection- quality and maintenance Music & Medical schools present very different challenges

Buy vs. Build Buy- Pros- less reliance on in-house staff; someone to call (and blame) when it breaks Cons- hard to find perfect match; can be difficult to customize; future development in the hands of others Build- Pros- tailored to your unique environment; prestige from significant contribution; self-reliance Cons- significant in-house staff required to design, build and maintain; required expertise in numerous fields (preservation, metadata, usability, etc.)

Middle Ground Development partnership Pros- make significant impact on design of product; develop local expertise Cons- requires significant investment of time and staffing; potentially a long, frustrating process

Finding Repository System Drafted list of desired and required specifications Compared against features of available systems- Fall 2001 Digital object management systems by ILS vendors Electronic Publishing Systems Open-source Systems

Finding Repository System Electronic Publishing Systems (BePress) Great for formal e-publishing Digital Object Management Systems (ENCompass, DigiTool) Librarian is gatekeeper Open-Source Systems (ePrints, Greenstone, DSpace) Institutional, rather than collection, focus of DSpace

Potential Projects Identity for Institutes and Studies Repository for faculty collections Archive for on-campus publications Electronic Theses and Dissertations Perhaps create modules for Student ePortfolios ePublishing System