Category: Institutional Repositories

Web Services and Repositories: Report from an EThOSnet Project Workshop

Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) has released Web Services and Repositories: Report from an EThOSnet project workshop, British Library, 2nd June 2009.

Here's an excerpt:

One of the areas highlighted for potential investigation was the use of Web Services in supporting the delivery of EThOS. Due to staff changes following the start of the project it was not possible to carry out this investigation on the technical level that had been originally hoped. Nevertheless, an initial investigation was carried out to assess options. In considering the role of Web Services in supporting EThOS, it was concluded that it was not possible for the most part to consider the needs of EThOS alone, as using Web Services is primarily about communication between systems. EThOS has been developed on a model of ongoing interaction with institutional repositories, and as such the role of Web Services in supporting these local repository instances is key to the success of EThOS making use of them. Furthermore, given the development of local repositories as systems that need to interact with other systems, either within an institution or outside it, it seemed timely to address this issue to provide guidance to the community as a whole.

A workshop to investigate the potential value and use of Web Services to digital repositories was thus organised to both disseminate and capture information on the possibilities. This report summarises much of the information and conclusions from the workshop, and accompanies the full resources from the day available at http://www.ethos.ac.uk/0031_Web_Services_Day.html.

Confederation of Open Access Repositories to Launch During Open Access Week 2009

In a press release posted to the American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum, D. Peters announced that the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) will launch during Open Access Week 2009. Supported by DRIVER, COAR "aims to promote greater visibility and application of research outputs through global networks of Open Access digital repositories."

"TCO and ROI: Assessing and Evaluating an Institutional Repository"

Pamela Bluh has self-archived her presentation "TCO and ROI: Assessing and Evaluating an Institutional Repository," which was given at the at the American Association of Law Libraries 2009, in DigitalCommons@UM Law ("TCO" means Total Cost of Ownership and "ROI" means Return on Investment).

Here's an excerpt:

On the surface, a TCO analysis would seem to be a fairly straightforward process. After all, isn't it just a matter of getting prices for hardware and software and determining the cost of staffing? While TCO can be used to determine the financial implications associated with the implementation of an IR and, at a minimum, should examine the direct cost of hardware and software and of personnel it should also take into consideration the indirect or "hidden" costs for ongoing operations such as training, system upgrades, licenses, technical support, and loss of accessibility due to system downtime. While not specifically part of TCO, a thorough analysis should also take into account intangibles such as the complexity of the implementation, the timely delivery of the product, and the availability of an effective exit strategy or a clearly delineated migration path for software and hardware upgrades.

Plugins to Import E-Print Metadata from arXiv into an EPrints Repository

The IncReASe (Increasing Repository Content through Automation and Services) project has released four plugins to facilitate importing e-print metadata from arXiv into an EPrints repository.

Here's an excerpt from the plugins' Web page:

Potentially, content in arXiv could provide a "quick win" for repository population. No arXiv depositor we have talked to date has objected to our importing their work into WRRO [White Rose Research Online]. From discussions with arXiv users, we are assuming that local deposit in WRRO with a "push" of data to arXiv may be difficult to achieve—we'd need to demonstrate some clear benefit to the depositor. arXiv serves its community well. A more likely model may be that arXiv users continue to deposit as now but IRs "harvest" data from arXiv (or perhaps arXiv will develop a facility to push material into local IRs).

Digital Preservation: Repository of Authentic Digital Objects Source Code Released

The National Archive Institute of Portugal has released the Repository of Authentic Digital Objects source code.

RODA works in conjunction with the Fedora (Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture) software.

Read more about it at "RODA—A Service-Oriented Repository to Preserve Authentic Digital Objects" and "Source Code Available from RODA 'Repository of Authentic Digital Objects'" (includes a QuickTime video about RODA).

Blog Report on Beyond the Fringe: Repository Fringe 2009

The DataShare blog has been posting summaries of the Beyond the Fringe: Repository Fringe 2009 sessions.

"Experimental DML over Digital Repositories in Japan"

Takao Namiki, Hiraku Kuroda, and Shunsuke Naruse have self-archived "Experimental DML over Digital Repositories in Japan" in arXiv.org.

Here's an excerpt:

In this paper the authors show an overview of Virtual Digital Mathematics Library in Japan (DML-JP), contents of which consist of metadata harvested from institutional repositories in Japan and digital repositories in the world. DML-JP is, in a sense, a subject specific repository which collaborate with various digital repositories. Beyond portal website, DML-JP provides subject-specific metadata through OAI-ORE. By the schema it is enabled that digital repositories can load the rich metadata which were added by mathematicians.

Streamline Integrating Repository Function with Work Practice: Tools to Facilitate Personal E-Administration, Final Report v1.3

JISC has released Streamline Integrating Repository Function with Work Practice: Tools to Facilitate Personal E-Administration, Final Report v1.3.

Here's an excerpt:

The tools developed include an automatic metadata generation tool that completes as much of the metadata as possible, from documentation associated with a learning object, including suggesting key words to the user; and resource discovery tools, which recommend additional resources based on closeness of objects to the original search results. In addition, we contributed to a variety of widgets, developed with the PERSoNA project, to demonstrate the use of social networking tools to promote sharing of resources through the repository.

Open Access Repository Junction Project Funded

EDINA, the JISC National Data Centre based at the University of Edinburgh, has received a JISC grant for the Open Access Repository Junction project.

Here's an excerpt from the press release :

One of the objectives of the Depot [see the Depot project page] was to devise an unmediated (computer-assisted) reception and referral service, called Repository Junction, which collected information in order to redirect users to existing Institutional Repository (IR) services. This was to support the principal objective of the Depot, which was to provide a repository for author/researchers at institutions that did not (then) have an IR.

The new project aims to develop the Repository Junction from its current simple form contained within the Depot, into a stand-alone broker mechanism which can be easily adopted and integrated by services or projects run by other institutions or organisations.

OA-RJ will primarily look at addressing the problems of repository deposit currently faced by researchers who have written a multi-authored journal article associated with multiple institutions and grant-funding organisations. This project will test the broker model against a number of use case scenarios in ways that we expect to be sufficiently generic that it can be deployed in other repository workflows and environments.

Read more about it at "Open Access Repository Junction."

JISC Final Report—CTREP, Cambridge TETRA Repositories Enhancement Project

JISC has released JISC Final Report—CTREP, Cambridge TETRA Repositories Enhancement Project .

Here's an excerpt:

CTREP created a connector between an Institutional VRE and an Institutional Repository. It is designed to be reusable in a number of different institutions where policy on deposit varies by means of a flexible deposit configuration system. In the process of executing the project:

  • the various stakeholders came to understand institutional cultural differences and address them in such a way that recent projects with a strong Repository and research dissemination/visualisation aspect have been more joined up than would previously have been possible
  • we developed an approach to policy expression designed both to avoid creating unnecessary tension within the institution during its development, and also to be authorable by a wide range of individuals
  • we have sought to record and capture lessons learnt (based, in part on case studies) for future institutionalisation projects
  • we developed a number of techniques which allowed apparent barriers to integration to be overcome by technical-architectural tools
  • we open-sourced the integration
  • we modified our approach to metadata/data binding in light of community feedback and developed a spreadsheet-based automated approach with which contributors felt comfortable, but which required a number of technical obstacles to be overcome through the use of creative programming techniques.

EMBRACE—EMBedding Repositories And Consortial Enhancement—Final Report

JISC has released EMBRACE—EMBedding Repositories And Consortial Enhancement—Final Report.

Here's an excerpt:

EMBRACE (EMBedding Repositories And Consortial Enhancement) was an 18-month project led by UCL on behalf of the SHERPA-LEAP (London Eprints Access Project) Consortium, a group of 13 University of London institutions with institutional repositories.

The project had two strands, technical and strategic. In its technical strand, EMBRACE aimed to implement a number of technical improvements to enhance the functionality of the SHERPA-LEAP repositories. In a concurrent strategic strand, EMBRACE set out to investigate the challenges of embedding repositories of digital assets in institutional strategy to ensure repository sustainability.

"Institutional Repositories: Investigating User Groups and Comparative Evaluation Using Link Analysis"

Paul Wells has self-archived his MSc thesis "Institutional Repositories: Investigating User Groups and Comparative Evaluation Using Link Analysis" in E-LIS.

Here's an excerpt:

The aim of this investigation was to look at user groups of institutional repositories. Past research on repository users has focused on authors and depositors at the expense of other users, and little is known about what types of user groups are associated with institutional repositories. This investigation used the research techniques of link analysis and content analysis to investigate links to institutional repository websites and determine what types of user groups are using repositories. These techniques were also examined for their use in providing a comparative evaluation of institutional repositories.

Personal Engagement with Repositories through Social Networking Applications: Final Report

JISC has released the Personal Engagement with Repositories through Social Networking Applications: Final Report.

Here's an excerpt from the project Web site that describes the project:

The Institutional Repository has become the established technology deployed at universities and other institutions to enable scholars to self-archive their research outputs; the PERSoNA team will be embedding social networking tools which allow chat, tagging and bookmarking (amongst other things) within the repository, and encouraging users to comment on their use of our repository and make recommendations amongst each other leading to the onward discovery of further resources.

Presentations from the ALA Annual 2009 Collecting for Digital Repositories Session

Presentations from the ALA Annual 2009 Collecting for Digital Repositories session are now available. (Thanks to Digital & Scholarly).

Also see the session's annotated bibliography.

Japanese Repositories: The DRF (Digital Repository Federation) Report during 2006-2008

Digital Repository Federation (DRF) in Japan has released The DRF (Digital Repository Federation) Report during 2006-2008.

Here's an excerpt:

Hokkaido University/Chiba University/Kanazawa University have organized Digital Repository Federation (DRF: 25 universities and 58 universities participated in 2006 and 2007, respectively) and worked on cooperation activities with support from CSI (Cyber Science Infrastructure)in order to form an IR community for IR promotion.

Main activities are:

  1. Construction of mailing list for information exchange on IR/Open Access and Wiki.
  2. Workshop for IR/Open Access
  3. International symposium for IR/Open Access
  4. International survey on cooperation model for IR
  5. Discussion on ideal future IR community

Word + SWORD + Ingester = Word to DSpace Deposit

In "Direct from MS Word to DSpace via SWORD," Stuart Lewis describes how to get documents into DSpace from Word via SWORD and a custom DSpace ingester.

Here's an excerpt:

This complete end to end process allows you to create Word templates, and to mark them up with required and optional fields. It also allows you to embed details of the SWORD deposit repository URL (so the users do not need to know what it is) within the template for easy deposit. This could be used for example for a journal editor to provide a template and a deposit location for new paper submissions all-in-one.

Sun Launches Enterprise-Wide Digital Repository and Archive Solution

Sun has launched its Enterprise-Wide Digital Repository and Archive solution.

Here's an excerpt from Enterprise-Wide Digital Repositories and Archives:

The result is a solution which is more than the sum of its parts. Drupal with Islandora provides an easy, powerful way to create customized Web sites with an organization's own unique content and branding and offers fine control over access to collections and individual data assets. Adding the Fedora Repository provides durability to the content while also enabling seamless sharing of content with other applications. The Sun Open Archive Framework’s Preservation Software layer adds robust storage protection and data handling combined with powerful management tools, while Sun Open Storage delivers the most cost effective and easily deployed storage available. Together these components get customers up and running fast with the assurance they will be able to grow and evolve the system gracefully, protecting investments.

Read more about it at "New Fedora-based Solution Offerings from Sun and its Partners."

“RKBExplorer: Repositories, Linked Data and Research Support”

Hugh Glaser, Ian Millard, and Les Carr have self-archived "RKBExplorer: Repositories, Linked Data and Research Support" in the ECS EPrints Repository.

Here's an excerpt:

RKBExplorer (http://rkbexplorer.com/) is a system for publishing Linked Data to Semantic Web standards, also providing a browser that allows users to explore this interlinked Web of Data, primarily in the domain of scientific endeavour. As part of the activity, we have harvested the metadata from a number of the larger ePrints repositories into http://eprints.rkbexplorer.com, and republished it as Linked Data. This allows the RKBExplorer browser to present a unified view of these repositories and related data from other sources such as dblp and dbpedia (a Semantic Web version of Wikipedia). Users can thus investigate concepts related to the ePrints people and articles, such as related people, projects and institutions.

“Citing and Reading Behaviours in High-Energy Physics. How a Community Stopped Worrying about Journals and Learned to Love Repositories”

Anne Gentil-Beccot, Salvatore Mele, and Travis Brooks have self-archived "Citing and Reading Behaviours in High-Energy Physics. How a Community Stopped Worrying about Journals and Learned to Love Repositories" in arXiv.org.

Here's an excerpt:

Contemporary scholarly discourse follows many alternative routes in addition to the three-century old tradition of publication in peer-reviewed journals. The field of High- Energy Physics (HEP) has explored alternative communication strategies for decades, initially via the mass mailing of paper copies of preliminary manuscripts, then via the inception of the first online repositories and digital libraries.

This field is uniquely placed to answer recurrent questions raised by the current trends in scholarly communication: is there an advantage for scientists to make their work available through repositories, often in preliminary form? Is there an advantage to publishing in Open Access journals? Do scientists still read journals or do they use digital repositories?

The analysis of citation data demonstrates that free and immediate online dissemination of preprints creates an immense citation advantage in HEP, whereas publication in Open Access journals presents no discernible advantage. In addition, the analysis of clickstreams in the leading digital library of the field shows that HEP scientists seldom read journals, preferring preprints instead.