First and third parts of a lecture delivered to 2009/10 Library post graduates at Loughborough University (March 25th 2010). Covers general open access and the response from the University of Leicester.
Institutional Repositories: What the Open Access agenda means for a modern institution
1. Institutional RepositoriesWhat the Open Access agenda means for a modern institution Gareth J Johnson & Valérie Spezi Leicester Research Archive David Wilson Library University of Leicester 25 Mar 2010 lra.le.ac.uk
2. Overview Introduction Open access & repositories overview The world of the LRA Challenges and wider agenda Group exercise Questions & Discussion
4. Open Access Today All Russell Group Universities have repositories 121 institutional repositories like LRA in UK 12 institutional mandates now in place Sources OpenDOAR & ROARMAP Open access archiving (OAA, Green route) Works alongside traditional publishing Services institutional & subject repositories Open access publishing (OAP, Gold route) An alternative approach to traditional practice Pay-up front model of funding Fully OA journals or paid publisher options May or may not allow for OAA on LRA
6. Copyright & LRA General academic awareness of copyright transfer (CTA) and retained rights is weak Pervasive scholarly gift culture Repository team need a strong grounding in rights and reuse Use of SHERPA/RoMEO helps Need to be flexible and adaptable to changes Repository copyright is a grey area, much untested in law Complexities of third party copyright in theses
7. Leicester University Top 20 in all National tables 91% student satisfaction rate 6th Highest citations rates relative to size 23,000 students 41% Distance Learners Around 1000 academic staff 93% submitted for RAE ’08 87% determined to be producing internationally significant research 4 Colleges Moved from faculty structure this academic year
8. LRA Secret Origins Founded as Library project 2006 Secondment of 0.5fte manager & 0.5fte administrator Academic support but not direct involvement Full-text purist at start RAE 2007/8 ingest of 2500+ metadata only records 2008 moves towards service Implications for staffing and workflows
14. LRA Today Comprises Around 4,700 items (~40% full text) RSS feeds for collections and departments Commerce using it to ID & assess collaborators Core team to enable archiving and provide advice Webometrics A measure of their visibility and scholarly regard 165th ranked HEI Repository globally Highly ranked HEI Repository in the UK #13 Cambridge #14 Brunel #15 SAS #16 Leicester/LRA #17 Huddersfield #18 SOAS
19. Who’s Using the LRA? Visits Dec 09 +25% Jan 10 +20% Feb 10 +3.2%
20. Outreach & Engagement Information librarians Alerts and raising awareness Personal visits Dept Meetings & Champions Research Office collaborations Social networking Twitter and RSS feeds Twitter discussions with local community Frequent blogged activities
21. Setting Policy Original ethos & remit set by Research Committee Major policy decisions still at this level OpenDOAR policy generator Used to create standard repository policies Metadata, data, content, submission, preservation and takedown Operational policy devolved to LRAPG Tacit input from Research Committee Responsive to changes in legal environment and institutional standpoints
22. Preservation Underlying commitment from institution to maintain repository integrity Durable handles (persistent URLS) for all items Tomb stoning of items taken down Avoidance of bitrot formats E.g. Old MS Office formats PDF/A-1 (ISO 19005-1) is preferred text standard Range of standards for other materials Some formats can be more problematic
24. CRIS & the LRA REF Preparation WG Moves to integrate LRA & RED Technical and political challenges Post-CRIS implementation Role and integration of LRA Merge, subsume, satellite or replace Pan-institution information systems collaboration Media contacts, consultancy and personal web spaces
25. Ethos Retrospective digitisation requests Requirement of contacting author & signing of author license Funded for approx 100 items a year Tracing authors major time and throughput constraint Access to alumni database helping More staff time available to chase Most requests in 2009 unfulfilled Issues outstanding with Ethos Variable quality scans produced Slow response to enquiries First requestor pays funding stream Academic confusion between LRA and Ethos
26. Getting Your Hands Dirty Examine some real challenges faced by repository managers Based on today & own knowledge Three vital questions for each scenario What would be the most effective response? What problems or issues do you foresee? What steps could be taken to minimise them? Work in groups and then report back
27. Feedback Repositories are as much about people as they are objects There are many, many grey areas and a lot of institutional policy is responsive Have to be cautious of setting precedents Flexibility and responsiveness in a dynamic environment is important
29. Gareth J Johnson Document Supply & Repository Manager gjj6@le.ac.uk extn 2039 Valérie, Margaret & Claire, LRA Administrator team lra@le.ac.uk/ethesis@le.ac.uk extn 2039 Contacts
30. References About the LRA: www.le.ac.uk/li/lra Institutional mandate: www2.le.ac.uk/offices/researchsupport/ref/pubpolicy The LRA: lra.le.ac.uk LRA policies: www.le.ac.uk/li/research/archivepolicies.html OpenDOAR: www.opendoar.org Research Support Project: www.rsp.ac.uk SHERPA/RoMEO: www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/ Slides: http://www.slideshare.net/GazJJohnson
Editor's Notes
Me and Gully Foyle
The LRA and Leicester’s approachMaterials we’re seeing used and popularityDark forces[This slide needs reworking in light of other bits of talk
Need to re-write this
MandatesThe REFThe CRIS (RED)Staffing & joined up thinkingThroughputCopyright changesAcademic embrace
The repository as a service is up against an increasing number of external and internal pressuresAwareness of the repository remains lowMandates are helping drive material to usIntegration and centralisation seem to lie ahead – though from my perspective not