Survey of Interest in Creating a Repository of Digital Information at the University of Rhode Island - Online survey conducted Feb 10-25, tenured/tenure track faculty contacted by - 15% response rate

Summary of Results: Responses Response distribution by faculty rank and college/area generally representative Includes responses from faculty in science/technical areas as well as humanities Probably skewed toward the individuals who have an immediate interest in digital materials and repositories Results indicate substantial interest and enthusiasm for the idea of central digital repository

Summary of Results: Perseptions Awareness and experience with repositories is low to moderate Recognize a variety of benefits of a centralized system and willing to investigate further

Summary of Results: Preservation Current storage/maintenance methods are what is most convenient Some assistance needed with creating the supporting metadata for describing and indexing Archiving should not be much harder than saving to CDs and external hard drives Storing on University servers is familiar and might be a model for saving in a repository

Summary of Results: Uses Copyright and intellectual property rights currently are not of great concern Important that a digital repository provides wider and quicker access to information as well as long-term preservation Making preprints available is of lesser importance than giving access to materials traditionally harder to distribute (large datasets, video, and audio)

Summary of Results: Participation About one third of the respondents personally are willing to participate in discussions and a pilot project for a digital repository Only 20% would not participate Comments indicate enthusiasm for the idea and an urgency to get started Core group of about 27 individuals would embrace the project and contribute to its development