Suzanne Bell and Nathan Sarr University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Re-engineering the Institutional Repository to Engage Users

Nice to meet you! S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 2 Nate SarrSuzanne Bell

University of Rochester Private university founded in campuses: The College (incl. grad schools of Education, Business) Eastman School of Music University of Rochester Medical Center 4608 undergrads, 2900 grad students, 1258 faculty Carnegie Level I research university Institutional Repository established 2003 S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 3

Repository: First Steps 2002 Library Investigates IR Software Chose DSpace Support a variety of formats Digital preservation Control Access Metadata Open Source Three initial collections (one from each campus) March 2003 UR Research launched S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 4

Install it and they will… S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 5

Taking a closer look at faculty S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 6 IMLS Grant: $103,546 1 year Main objectives Provide insight into how faculty do their work Customize DSpace for faculty Work Practice studies

S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 7 Detailed observations in 5 departments, telephone interviews with several more 30 in situ videotaped faculty interviews Focused specifically on use of digital tools and documents in research and authoring

Data gathering S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 8 Walk us through your research process Introduce us to your environment Engage us in your research interests Record/Video tape everything Transcripts Analysis by diverse group of people Co-viewing Structured exercises Brainstorming

S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 9

Stopgap; Do some more Researcher pages – add-on to Dspace IMLS Grant #2: study graduate students ( ) - $323,804 How do they conduct research? What resources do they use? What are their writing practices? How do they collaborate with other students and their advisor? S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 10

The ultimate revelations of all this user research… S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 11

The repository needs to… Become part of the users normal workflow Be part of the research process Support collaboration Make publishing into the repository easy Focus on the user as an individual and provide positive feedback Give users control over their work S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 12

Rethinking the Repository: IR+ Support Faculty and Graduate students Personal document management system – safely store and manage files Support for easy collaboration Version control Personalization – the Researcher Page More options, flexibility Personal control: you entered it, you can edit it S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 13

S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 14 User workspace - private Institutional repository – generally public Researcher pages - public

IR+ provides… Personal workspace Your files, organized your way Share files Track versions Researcher Pages to showcase work Easy publishing into the IR Stats: at every level S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 15

Keep that metadata clean! IR+ has a person name authority system Uses control lists as much as possible for metadata entry Makes possible a number of interesting information displays S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 16

LIVE DEMO What does this all mean? Lets do a submission! S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 17

Migration There werent any terrible disasters Does require the knowledge of a developer No data was lost… But a lot of data needed to be cleaned up and fixed Still, all in all… S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 18

Show me the… Full time developer plus 1 ~15 month contract developer to write IR+ Now: still 1 full time developer 30% of a librarian Servers, ~5% of a server admin S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 19

Did we engage users? Users with content in workspace: 100 Public researchers: 40 Shared files: 747 UR graduate students: 140 UR faculty: 86 UR staff: 71 Users registered as collaborators: 53 S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services 20

IR+ - Summing Up Make the repository part of the users normal workflow Share, showcase, control Controlled approach to metadata great by-products and benefits Make admin easy S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services

Final Poll & Questions Nathan Sarr & Suzanne Bell River Campus Libraries University of Rochester S. Bell/N. Sarr - University of Rochester River Campus Libraries Hosted by ALCTS The Association for Library Collections and Technical Services