Build it and they will come?: Institutional repository growth at Southern Cross University Katie Wilson Information Online 2009 Sydney, January 21, 2009

Overview  What is an institutional repository?  SCU institutional repository  The challenge  Our approach  Outcomes

What is an institutional repository (IR)?  a university-based institutional repository is a set of services that a university offers to members for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its members. Lynch, C 2003, ‘Institutional Repositories: Essential Infrastructure for Scholarship in the Digital Age’, ARL Bimonthly Report no. 226.

What is an institutional repository (cont)  an organizational commitment to the stewardship of these digital materials, including long-term preservation where appropriate, as well as organization and access or distribution

Southern Cross University  SCU – Coffs Harbour, Lismore, Tweed/Gold Coast, NSW  Teaching, research centres, CRCs, commercial research services  14,000 students  289 fulltime academic staff & researchers

ePublications at SCU - history  Repository named ePublications  established 2006 to manage & disseminate SCU research  RQF (Research Quality Framework) required online access in 2007 to published research  Led to increased activity on SCU repository

ePublications at SCU - implementation  Managed by the Library  Digital Commons off-the-shelf software from Berkeley Electronic Press (bepress) in California  Allows full-text loads, metadata-only entries, creates OpenURL links

The challenge  Inspired by Open Access movement to include more SCU publications in addition to RQF output  Difficulties in populating IRs well- documented  How to obtain content?  Self-archive, mandate, link to promotion, use administrative staff, students to input content

Our approach  DIFY – Do It For You  Build it and they will come…  Dedicated ePublications team to build - check copyright, upload papers  Selected Works to build Personal Researcher Pages  Gallery of researchers

Intro paragraph Publications list Download PDF

Strategies  Target high profile researchers  Attend school meetings  Launches on all 3 campuses  Contact academics individually  Reduce perceived barriers, stress straightforward process, benefits  Harvest by Google, OAISTER, Arrow maximises research impact  Statistical reports on downloads, page visits  Use non-technical language

Outcomes and impacts  Academics enthusiastic, like DIFY & PRPs  Science academics with high publications & reputation were early adopters  Information Technology researchers supportive and open to self-archiving  Steady growth throughout 2008  70 Personal Researcher Pages, 1220 citations, 730 full-text papers

Breakdown of content

Ongoing promotion  when PRP completed  Encourage use of PRP URL  Congratulate researchers with high downloads  Send to all researchers with a PRP to solicit new publication details and papers

Feedback  I've added the web address linking my personal researcher page to my address signature and I think that is also contributing to people's awareness of these papers. I should start adding my personal researcher page URL to all my presentation slides so that people who hear me all over at guest lectures and conferences (and naturally my own students) can then look up what else I have written!  Academic, School of Commerce & Management

Future developments  Will continue DIFY as funding permits  Mandating policy anticipated, aligning with growing international trend  May need to encourage self-archiving  Hosting an online journal currently published in print at SCU

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