Institutional Repository Projects in Scottish Academic Libraries John MacColl

1. Institutional Repository Projects in Scottish Academic Libraries John MacColl Sub-Librarian, Online ServicesEdinburgh University Library ELECTRIC CONNECTIONS, COSMIC & SPEIR Joint Conference, 21st August 2003, Perth College

2. What are institutional repositories (IRs)? • Databases of • Research papers submitted for journal publication (preprints) {eprints • Research papers published in journals (postprints) • Working papers • Theses and dissertations • ‘Learning objects’

3. Why are they important? • Showcases of institutional output • Manageability and coherence (RAE) • IPR clarification • Preservation • Persistence • Part of strategy to oppose high journal prices

4. How are they created? • By libraries, or other information services • By academic departments • Using custom-built software • Or commercial software (eg Metalib, ENCompass, IntraLibrary, etc) • Or open-source software (eg DSpace, eprints, ETD-DB, etc)

5. What’s the big deal? • A new protocol, the OAI-PMH • (Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) • Depends on the use of Dublin Core • ‘Lowest common denominator’ metadata • Ensures interoperability

6. Therefore … (an example) • I write a paper ‘The joy of OAI-PMH’ • I submit it to The Journal of Digital Library Jargon • I also use our IR’s submission system to deposit a copy locally • Next day, my paper – clearly shown as ‘unpublished’ - can be found alongside the rest of the research corpus of the University of Edinburgh

7. Its metadata can also be retrieved by OAI-PMH compliant harvesting tools across the internet, so that • It can be retrieved by other scholars in the field of digital library jargon worldwide • Effectively part of a distributed virtual research database • Once accepted for publication by the journal, I assert my right to replace the IR copy with a copy of the published article • The replaced copy is now flagged as published, with details of the journal

8. This creates a ‘free corpus’ copy of an article also available in the commercial corpus • This threatens the profits of for-profit publishers, who may respond in several ways (discuss) • And is less threatening to non-profit publishers (discuss) • And may complement open access journal publishing (discuss)

9. So IRs are important • Vice-Chancellors and Principals think so • JISC thinks so • ‘Focus on Access to Institutional Resources’ (FAIR) Programme • Funds four Scottish projects, and one UK project with strong Scottish participation

10. These are • Daedalus (Glasgow) • E-theses UK (RGU, with the BL, Cranfield and the University of London) • HAIRST (Strathclyde, Napier, St Andrews and 10 Glasgow FE Colleges) • Theses Alive! (Edinburgh, with Cranfield, Cambridge, Warwick, Leeds and MMU) • SHERPA (Nottingham, with Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford, ‘White Rose’, the BL and AHDS)

11. Focussing on • Daedalus: an IR for Glasgow, of eprints and ETDs, using ETD-DB, DSpace and eprints • E-theses UK: examining various models in order to make recommendations to JISC • HAIRST: examining interoperability issues (in exchange protocols, metadata and organisational adaptation) in IR creation, with a comprehensive spread of resource types • Theses Alive!: developing an IR geared to ETDs for use in the UK • SHERPA: developing a group of eprint-based IRs

12. So – lots of Scottish expertise • The whole initiative looks back to the CATRIONA Project • How might we take advantage of this? • Infrastructure is free and available • Mature tools will exist in a year or two • We need funds for metadata editors and liaison staff • Scotland should be well-positioned to lead on organisational adaptation • And thus on content

13. Discuss!Thank Youjohn.maccoll@ed.ac.uk