Toward Successful Institutional Repositories: Listening to IR Staff’s Experiences

Beth St. Jean, Soo Young Rieh, Karen Markey, Elizabeth Yakel and Jihyun Kim

ASIS&T 2008 Annual Meeting (AM08 2008)
Columbus, Ohio, October 24-29, 2008

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Summary

This poster presents a study of what is required to plan, implement, maintain, and sustain successful institutional repositories (IRs). This study is part of the MIRACLE (Making Institutional Repositories a Collaborative Learning Environment) Project, which aims to identify the factors contributing to the success of IRs and effective ways of accessing and using repositories. The data for this study were collected through telephone interviews with IR managers and staff members. Interviews focused on participants’ motivations, experiences, and viewpoints in regard to IRs, among other IR deployment issues. The transcriptions of interviews were analyzed using content analysis. The findings indicate that IRs are more than the sum of their component parts (i.e., collections, systems, policies, staff, contributors, and end-users); indeed, they are a knowledge sharing and content management tool that works together with other types of open access infrastructure in colleges and universities.

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