Building Institutional Repository Communities Through Collaborative Strategies

1
Building Institutional Repository Communities
Through Collaborative Strategies

• An exploration of collaboration in the context of
  the University of Wisconsin and its institutional
  repository, MINDS_at_UW.

Lisa Saywell, Digital Repository
Librarian lsaywell_at_library.wisc.edu / 608.262.9470
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The Context

• University of Wisconsin Digital Collections
  Center
• Contains
• 214 hours of audio
• 216,055 citations
• 1595 finding aids
• 29,187 images
• 7,000 books and journals comprised of 1,249,296
  pages
• Serves
• 13 Four-year campuses
• 13 Two-year campuses
• Highly decentralized environment

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MINDS_at_UW--the Institutional Repository

• Vital Statistics
• UW System institutional repository
• Based on DSpace software
• Approx. 1 year old
• 20 active communities and 15 in process
• Contains approx. 1700 items

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An Institutional Repository and the Idea of
Collaboration

• Desire of the faculty and staff for a
  collaborative workspace
• Collaborative projects as a way to engage
  stakeholders in exploring the issues of scholarly
  communication and Open Access
• Collaboration and integration as the keys to a
  successfulinstitutional repository program 

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Collaborative Workspace--Research

• My WebSpace
• A Xythos instance
• File Storage - My WebSpace allows you to save
  your files on a server that you can easily access
  online from anywhere.
• Web Publishing - My WebSpace supports basic web
  publishing using a web content folder.
• File Sharing - Each user of My WebSpace can share
  a file or folder with an individual or group of
  individuals.

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Collaborative Workspace--Instruction
Learn_at_UW A Desire 2 Learn instance
Learn_at_UW is a collection of software tools
enabling instructors to create course web sites
with state-of-the-art communication,
collaboration, content delivery and student
assessment capabilities. Learn_at_UW can be used
to develop stand-alone online courses for
distance education, or for creating resource rich
web sites to supplement campus courses. Students
access course materials within Learn_at_UW via a
standard web browser.
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Collaborative Workspace--Developers

• Wisconsin Federated Resource for Developers (WFR)

The WFR is a catalyst for the development and
electronic publication of e-Learning content for
education in Wisconsin. It does this by
innovatively networking content developers with
shared resources and colleagues.
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Stakeholder InvolvementMINDS_at_UW and the Open
Access Movement

• The MINDS_at_UW digital repository is one way in
  which the University of Wisconsin is addressing
  the research communitys need for new outlets in
  scholarly communication.
• MINDS_at_UW offers a promising alternative to the
  self-archiving of pre-prints and post-prints and
  provides faculty and staff a fast and efficient
  method for publication and dissemination of
  materials such as gray literature, presentations,
  conference proceedings, and research data.

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Stakeholder Involvement What can MINDS_at_UW do
for faculty and staff?

• Promising alternative to self-archiving
• Fast and efficient publication and
  dissemination of their work
• Increased visibility (Googleable)
• Time-saving administration of digital content
• Usage reports that track use of content
• Email notification of new content
• Permanent archiving abilities
• Search capabilities

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Stakeholder InvolvementFaculty Concerns

• Intellectual property rights
• What is the nature of the content?
• Sherpa (http//www.sherpa.ac.uk)
• Access
• Who can use the content?
• How can they use the content?
• Creative Commons (http//creativecommons.org/)
• Policies
• Who decides what goes into the repository?
• Workload
• Who does the work?
• How much time does it take?

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Stakeholder InvolvementOffice of Scholarly
Communication and Publishing

• Creation of the Office of Scholarly Communication
  and Publishing to facilitate faculty and staff
  involvement in transforming scholarly
  communication
• Integration of MINDS_at_UW project into this
  offices charge and mission

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Collaborative Strategies for Institutional
Repositories

• Harvest and inventory content available on
  departmental and research center websites
• Use library liaisons to discuss and encourage
  participation in the repository
• Create contacts on each campus to coordinate and
  promote the use of the repository
• Coordinate with existing system-wide
  administrative units
• Acquire extant databases from departments and
  research centers
• Assist librarians, faculty, and researchers with
  self-archiving projects
• Integrate the repository into the preservation
  and access plans for digital publishing projects

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Harvest and Inventory Content

• Partners
• Subject librariansEngineering Library
• Colleges, departments and research
  centersCollege of Engineering (COE)
• Goals
• Add content to and encourage the use of the
  repository
• Identify repository needs and uses
• Create an easy way for faculty and researchers to
  participate in the repository
• Highlight the research output of the COE

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Utilize Library Liaisons

• Partners
• Library LiaisonsMy Librarian Program
• Public service librarians
• Faculty and researchers
• Goals
• Actively involve public service librarians in the
  repository project
• Encourage faculty and staff to create repository
  communities and collections
• Generate discussions of the issues involved in
  scholarly communication and Open Access

15
Create Campus Contacts

• Partners
• Campus Library directors
• Library contacts
• Campus administrators
• Learning Technologists
• Goals
• Customize messages to the needs of individual
  campuses
• Empower campus libraries to generate interest in
  the creation of communities and collections in
  the repository
• Distribute the administration of repository
  communities and collections

16
Coordinate with Existing Administrative Units

• Partners
• System-wide administrative units
• Womens Studies Consortium
• Subject librarians
• Womens Studies Librarian
• Faculty and researchers
• Goals
• Facilitate the creation of communities across
  campuses through a centralized organizational
  structure
• Gain administrative support for the repository
• Highlight the materials created by the unit

17
Acquire Existing Databases

• Partners
• Departments and research centers with existing
  data--CSUMC
• Learning Technologists and IT contacts for these
  units
• Subject Librarians
• Goals
• Add content to the repository
• Preserve the digital assets of the university
• Facilitate easy deposit of the materials
• Provide centralized access to the universitys
  research resources

Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern
Cultures Photo Gallery
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Assist Self-Archiving Projects

• Partners
• Departments and research centersCenter for
  Limnology
• Faculty and staff
• Departmental LibrariesCenter for Limnology
  Library
• Goals
• Support self-archiving projects on campus
• Help libraries maintain their pre-print,
  post-print, and reprint collections
• Raise awareness of the Open Access movement

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Integrate with Digital Publishing Projects

• Partners
• Digital publishing initiatives
• University Press
• Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing
• Goals
• Assist in preserving and providing access to
  digital and print publications
• Encourage use of the repository for digital
  assets created by the university
• Integration of the repository into the digital
  publishing workflow

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Concluding Thoughts.....

• Collaboration comes in all shapes and sizes.
• Having limited resources breeds collaboration.
• If you build it, there is no guarantee they will
  come, but if you build it together they just
  might hang around.