Institutional Repositories: the DSpace Experience Ann J. Wolpert Director of Libraries Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Scholarly communication is in transition Publication is only one part of the network- enabled “system” Disciplines are experimenting Traditional outlets are constrained New formats present preservation challenges Required responsibilities not yet defined

Increasing amounts of intellectual output have no print analog. The digital genie is out of the bottle in all disciplines. Digital and print need new, interoperable management and access models. Educational content is increasingly digital in format. Digital is still frighteningly fragile

The scholarly communications system must work for all. Disciplines can change their assessments and procedures. Universities can change their standards for judging impact. Authors can use contracts that enhance reader access. Publishers can work for more rational economics for book publishing. Editors can accept responsibility for the cost of their journals.

To support these changes, new tools are required. To build “the record” in new formats To preserve “the record” in new formats To share innovation and information To assure affordability and access To sustain teaching using new tools and techniques To protect university investments

Institutional Repositories offer part of the solution A tool for faculty and institutions Institution-based counterweight Scholarly and educational material in digital formats Cumulative and perpetual Open and interoperable

DSpace was designed for adoption from the start. MIT Libraries/Hewlett Packard Research Labs collaborative development project Broad vs deep Federation model Preservation archive Open Source Agnostic as to content 145 repositories in use worldwide today, copies of the code downloaded

DSpace Offerings Large-scale, stable, managed long-term storage Support for range of digital formats Easy-to-use submission process Persistent network identifiers Access control Search and delivery interface

Possible Content Preprints, articles Technical Reports Working Papers Conference Papers E-theses Datasets statistical, geospatial, matlab, etc. Images visual, scientific, etc. Audio files Video files Learning Objects Reformatted digital library collections

Why Libraries Expertise Large-scale collection management Assessment/collection policies preservation Metadata Solid business practices Commitment Long time frames Mission scope

Why the MIT Libraries? Distributed library system Service emphasizes relevance Faculty who are interested and have expertise plus relationships Culture of experimentation Tradition of openness

Challenges Faculty Acceptance Valuing and trusting an institutional archive Myriad disciplines with different cultures Copyright/IP opinions and policies Library Culture Policies Operations Learning and Sharing Designing DSpace system to federate Tracking digital library research, reporting out Sustainability institutional, financial, preservation

What’s next for DSpace? Digital preservation Digital files (e.g. audio, video, image, text) Web sites (e.g. W3C) Software programs Personal Archiving strategies DSpace on your laptop Proactive collaboration with content creators Federation and economic sustainability