1. Building a Business Case for the Institutional Repository
Tim Tamminga, The Berkeley Electronic Press
ALA Midwinter
Who we are: As a company that develops, hosts and maintains over 100 institutional repositories, we have learned quite a bit about making the case for an IR. In this presentation, we use examples from our customers as well as existing IR research to provide ammunition for making the business case to Provosts and other senior administrators on your campus.
Why a business case? Two things will help you to ensure successful repository implementation on your campus: a solid plan and top down support. We've heard time and time again from our customers that successful IRs are not just IT or library projects; they are strategic, campus wide endeavors that need the support of campus decision makers. The IR is long term investment and is no small commitment when done correctly. As such, the IR needs funding and support from stakeholders like the Provost.

2. The Elements of the Business Case
Determining Benefits/Value propositions
Redefining the IR
Why should the University acquire an IR?
How does the IR help fulfill the goals of the institution?
Determining objectives
What are our needs?
Describing the scope of the IR
Benchmarks
Measuring success
Time frames and milestones
Determining total cost of ownership
Why does your solution bring back value to the university?
The best way to engage Provosts is to speak their language. This means developing a business case with high level value propositions, a cost analysis, solid objectives, and an implementation plan. Coming with a polished, well thought out business plan is your best bet to getting buy in and funding.
There are several elements to the IR business case. In this presentation, we’ll be focusing on the first major section “Determining Benefits and Value Propositions.” This is really the central argument for the business case and the meat of what you’ll want to present to Provosts and other senior academic officials.

3. Redefining the IR:
An institutional repository is a suite of services for managing and disseminating digital materials created by your community members, as well as a highly visible, centralized research portal for all academic output on your campus
When speaking with your Provost, it is important to begin to frame the discussion.
When IRs first came to be, the term "institutional repository" was perhaps apt. The IR was simply a place to store content from the institution. The term, however, no longer fully represents the scope of the IR. As IRs have evolved from static repositories to vibrant, service oriented research portals, the definition of the IR has evolved as well.  Make sure your own definition is lofty enough to encompass the needs of the stakeholders outside of your library. You are making the case for why this serves ALL members of the institution. As such, you may need to redefine your understanding of what an IR is.
The IR services institutional goals beautifully. You should focus on potential IR benefits and value propositions rather than getting bogged down in semantics. Give your Provost a vision that they can believe in and be inspired by. The “why” rather than the “how.”

4. Why should the University acquire an IR?
Simply put, because the IR helps fulfill the goals of the institution
Successful IRs are strategic university projects, managed by the library. As the central hub of the university, it makes sense that the IR would be a library service. The IR allows the library to reposition itself in the university’s digital environment, thereby increasing library value and relevance across campus. This has an interesting impact on the traditional role of the library, allowing it to move beyond “preservation” to offering publishing services for individual faculty or groups of faculty (centers, institutes, conferences, symposiums, journals, etc).

5. How does the IR help fulfill the goals of the institution?
The IR gives back to the community  
The IR raises institutional visibility and relevance
Historically, the library has viewed the IR as a vehicle for preservation and organization. There is no doubt that this aligns with the library mission, but it may not speak to Provosts and Deans. In your business plan, you should seek to champion the value propositions that will appeal to the highest level of your organization.  
The IR provides services to enhance scholarship on campus

6. The IR gives back to the community
The IR makes content easily available to researchers around the world
Originally the mission of repositories went hand-in-hand with “Open Access.”  This was a result of the Scholarly Communications Crisis and the sky rocketing prices on academic content -- issues that the library dealt with firsthand. While this gets to where the library lives, the “Scholarly Communications Crisis” may not resonate as much with senior level administrators. A more philanthropic argument that addresses “sharing knowledge for the good of all” should probably be attempted. The IR should prompt your stakeholders to ask: What are we giving back?
This amplifies your university's global impact
And provides valuable scholarship to the global community of scholars and researchers

7. "The Harvard Law School faculty produces some of the most exciting, groundbreaking scholarship in the world…Our decision to embrace ‘open access’ means that people everywhere can benefit from the ideas generated here at the law school.” Elena Kagan, Dean of the Harvard Law School, Harvard Law School News, May 7, 2008.
The IR exposes your institutions intellectual output to researchers around the world who would not have access through traditional channels (subscription journals, etc.). This amplifies your university's global impact and provides valuable scholarship to the global community of scholars and researchers.
A Provost is often responsible for leading the university's globalization efforts, so this value proposition should clearly resonate with them.

8. The IR gives back to the community
A nice example of giving back to the community by sharing your expertise. This is a screenshot from the Digital Commons site of University of Nebraska – Lincoln (
University of Nebraska-Lincoln produces a series of publications within their IR for their tractor museum. The tractor museum exists because back in the early 1900’s Nebraska decided it didn’t want East Coast farming manufacturers to sell shoddy machinery to their citizens. To avoid this, the State required every tractor to be tested through UNL. These tests (which go as far back as 1915) can now be found on their repository.
The tractor museum gets traffic from all over Nebraska and from as far away as Finland. Recently, the curator of a Finnish tractor museum found UNL’s IR and got in touch with the UNL repository manager to ask if they could copy and translate their content into Finnish for their own museum.

9. The IR gives back to the community
The IR forges and facilitates partnerships outside of the institution
Often, the Provost is the link between the University and the outside world (raising funds, etc.). The IR is a great ambassador in this regard and leads to several direct and indirect advantages for the implementing institution.

10. The IR forges and facilitates partnerships outside of the institution
UMass Amherst produces two journals in partnership with the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education. I-CHRIE (pronounced “eye-cree”) was so impressed with what has been done with the journals (and the service that it provides members) that it made UMass a platinum partner. This is the highest level of partnership within the academy. The only other two firms in that category are Marriott International and Hcareers.  They are the first institution to achieve the platinum level.

11. The IR gives back to the community
The IR is a vehicle for integrating knowledge and resources
Most universities lack a centralized location for research and other valuable university content. Aggregated content is more easily found, and more valuable in context. As a comprehensive research portal, the IR gives the University the chance to really benefit from its research by publicly presenting it under its moniker.
It also gives valuable non-traditional content (university planning documents, task force reports, etc.) a home where they are of potential use to the community.

12. The IR is a vehicle for integrating knowledge and resources
This is the institutional mission statement for Penn as stated on the Provost’s Office website. The office highlights three areas where it strives for strategic improvement: access, integration of knowledge and engaging locally and globally.

13. Here is a screenshot from their Digital Commons homepage
Here is a screenshot from their Digital Commons homepage. Penn views the IR as a key strategy in achieving the three aspects of the strategic vision of the university.

14. How does the IR help fulfill the goals of the institution?
The IR gives back to the community  
The IR raises institutional visibility and relevance
Most universities cannot point to the scholarly output of its faculty, researchers and students and say “This is what this university has accomplished and is accomplishing.” This is an opportunity lost for students, their parents, local, state and federal agencies, other educational entities, and other members of the community who need this vital information.
The IR provides services to enhance scholarship on campus

15. The IR raises institutional visibility and relevance
The IR highlights your institutional expertise
Every school has superb scholars with specific areas of expertise, centers of excellence, and specific strengths that would benefit being shared with the world. Many of our customers start a repository because they want to be THE expert in a given field. For example, Cornell’s Industrial & Labor Relations Institute ( became the premier place for Collective Bargaining Agreements. The collection is used heavily by government policy makers, by corporations and unions, and by the news media.
What do you have that’s similar? Make THAT an aspect of your business case.

16. The IR raises institutional visibility and relevance
The IR provides a tangible symbol of academic quality for investors
Accountability is important, especially when funding is on the line. You are offering a service to your Provost that will make him or her look very good in the eyes of institutional investors.

17. The IR provides a tangible symbol of academic quality for investors
Reaching potential funders
The IR delivers valuable subject specific research (under the university’s brand) to donors/funders:
Regardless of where institutional funding comes from there has to be a way to showcase how the money has been spent. The IR is exactly that showcase, demonstrating the fruits of your academic labor. In this regard, the IR helps you to justify your institutional funding, and, in fact, may even help you to GAIN funding. Your Provost, especially, should be interested in this aspect of the IR, as they are typically responsible for the budget.
State Legislatures
Foundations
Research Grants from outside sources

18. The IR provides a tangible symbol of quality and accountability for investors
“The folks who pay our bills need to and want to know how those investments in the university are benefiting them. Unlike most other enterprises, universities do a lousy job of letting their investors know what they are getting from their investment. It’s time to let the light of universities shine and allow digital repositories to entice additional funding.”
David Shulenburger, Vice President for Academic Affairs, National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC), in the closing keynote of the SPARC meeting, November 2008.
It is important to serve internal stakeholders AND external ones. The IR serves external stakeholders by providing the institutional memory that will allow them to tangibly see what is being “produced” at the institution. The above quote applies to a public institution but would work equally for alumni, grants, donors, and other contributors to private colleges and universities.
There are many ways that your institution might choose to market itself to the outside world. The most valuable thing you have and the most representative of your institutional integrity is your academic content. Marketing that should be a key part of your institutional strategic plan.

19. How does the IR help fulfill the goals of the institution?
The IR gives back to the community  
The IR raises institutional visibility and relevance
A huge dimension to the value of the IR is the services that it provides to enhance scholarship on campus. The IR gives your institutional scholarship a place to live where it can be used by the community. It also provides the intellectual stamp of your institutional, which will help that scholarship to be recognized as valuable.
The IR provides services to enhance scholarship on campus

20. The IR provides services to enhance scholarship on campus
Research
Faculty Recognition
Student Recruitment and Retention
♦ The IR can be a key strategy for enhancing the research focus of your institution
Enhancing the research focus of their university is often a top priority for Provosts. The IR, because it increases institutional expertise, can be a key vehicle for achieving this.
The IR also provides senior level administrators metrics for reviewing faculty scholarly contributions, which allows for a higher level of self evaluation.
♦ The IR allows the institution to examine and define itself

21. The IR allows the institution to examine and define itself
Benchmarks/measuring success
Sense of history / institutional memory
Improves the quality of faculty and student research because it promotes healthy competition
Once you consolidate your institution’s scholarship into a single system, you have the ability to easily and accurately measure your success and you have a better ability to take stock of your institution’s accomplishments.
Because the IR gives campus research new transparency, faculty, researchers and students alike can begin to measure their own work against the standards of their peers.

22. The IR allows the institution to examine and define itself
“Socrates once said ‘an unexamined life is not worth living.’ Universities fail in this regard. Institutional repositories should be the means by which a university examines itself.”
Quoted from a speech by Robert Koob, Provost and Vice-President of Academic Affairs, Cal Poly, Opening Remarks, Putting Knowledge to Work: Building an Institutional Repository for Your Campus, October 10th, 2008
Taking stock of institutional accomplishments can mean looking back over a longer period of time, or looking back at the most recent year. What was new in 2008? What was created? What new conferences were created, new centers? What is the most popular content? Symposium? Center? Topic? Where should we be focusing more resources?

23. The IR provides services to enhance scholarship on campus
Research
Faculty Development
Student Recruitment and Retention
♦ The IR provides tools for collaboration
In addition to serving the goals of the institution, and fulfilling the goals of the library, the IR provides valued services to scholars. By offering a highly visible venue for sharing work, the IR allows professors to point to the corpus of their life’s work and say, “I accomplished this.” It also enables them to increase their own global visibility and to share work that might not fit into traditional publishing models.
The institution’s role in the production of that work is implied by virtue of the institutional branding (not so with other publishing avenues for authors).
♦ The IR provides opportunity for faculty recognition

24. Collaboration and Recognition for faculty
“The IR enables the faculty member to showcase his/her intellectual output without restraint. It is an "intellectual GPS." IR bridges academic silos and enables interdisciplinary research and collaboration.”
Quoted from a speech by Brian Kennelly, Chair, Dept of Modern Languages & Literatures, Faculty Perspective on the Importance of an Institutional Repository, Putting Knowledge to Work: Building an Institutional Repository for Your Campus, October 10th, 2008
The IR also allows researchers to discover and collaborate with colleagues. In tough economic times, the IR can be a nice resource for non-compensatory faculty recognition.

25. The IR provides services to enhance scholarship on campus
Research
Faculty Recognition
Recruitment and Retention
♦ More visibility means more relevance, retention and recruitment of faculty AND students
Given the intensely public face of the IR, and the vast array of services it provides, it is a solid perk for students and faculty alike.
♦ The IR is a selling point to prospective students as well as alumni

26. The IR attracts top students
A great example of a service given to students through the IR. Res Publica is a journal from Illinois Wesleyan ( that celebrates the best student research in political science. Inclusion in the journal is highly regarded and students aspire to have their research featured here. An additional benefit is that students get the opportunity to learn about the publishing and peer review process by participating in the IR.
From the journal’s website: “About the Journal: Our editorial board selects from among the submitted papers which appear to make the most substantive contributions to the discipline. “

27. The IR is a selling point to prospective students as well as alumni
“Cal Poly's President Baker sees the repository as a place to show off Cal Poly students' senior portfolios. He got excited when he understood that he could point prospects and their parents to the portfolios as examples of what their student can accomplish at Cal Poly.”
Quoted from a speech by Michael Miller, Dean of Library Services, Cal Poly, Closing Remarks, Putting Knowledge to Work: Building an Institutional Repository for Your Campus, October 10th, 2008.
The IR can be a way to communicate with new students – and their parents. Even before a campus visit, parents and potential students are online, searching for information that will help them in choosing a school. The IR allows your institutional scholarship to speak on your behalf.

28. How can we help YOU make a business case?
Further resources to come
IR days
Campus presentations
Let us know!

29. Marilyn Moody, Dean of Libraries at Boise State University, also did a presentation titled Research Distribution Matters: The Boise State University Strategy. To view it click on the link below:
For Marilyn Moody’s presentation, please visit: