Amber, Jessie
A few more thoughts from another coal face...
As an academic I would be less than enthused if I was to be invited to
submit the same item several times to different repositories. However,
experience with the Repository Bridge suggests that automated sharing of
items between repositories is feasible. In our case we are exporting
materials by type (theses) into a national (archival?) repository (to
support preservation) but I don't see why it should not be done by
subject to a subject based repository such as ArXiv. Admittedly, our
approach that uses OAI-PMH for metadata harvesting and so identification
of item files might be less appropriate. This might need some thought as
to how IRs can capture sufficient metadata for any receiving
repositories and if and how authors can be asked to fill any gaps, but
there seems to be grounds for hope here. We see no difficulty in using
our system to allow the National Library of Wales (the receivign
institution) to import theses from throughout Wales.
Surely one of the aims of investigations into interoperability of
repositories, infrastructure integration and machine to machine services
should be to investigate the feasibility of allowign a submitted item to
eb shared with appropriate subject based and archival repositories to
support search, dissemination and preservation?
Cheers,
Jon
-----Original Message-----
From: Repositories discussion list
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jessie Hey
Sent: 31 March 2006 11:22
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Concern of longevity and lack of active engagement from
researchers with institutional repositories
Amber, some thoughts from the coal face.
Quoting Amber Thomas <[log in to unmask]>:
> I'm following this thread with interest ...
>
> In terms of longevity in business models, do we think that potential
> depositors concerns are
> a) I need to know content will be kept safe over time
As an example, this was significant for our Southampton Statistical
Sciences Research Institute working papers http://www.s3ri.soton.ac.uk/.
They are deposited in the central repository for long term storage and
continuity but can be exported and given their own branding for the
Institute as well. A combination of simple deposit and effective
services is incentive.
> b) I need to know that my effort now is one-off and I won't have to
> deposit this again in a another service later down the line
It is likely that there will be duplication with new demands such as UK
PubMed
Central and experience has shown that subtly different requirements
make
attempts at simple export non-trivial at present. However, we hope that
our
TARDis work to provide good citation elements will help with the many
demands
on academics in their jobs as well as giving the opportunity of more
people
reading their work. Keeping publication lists up to date (and finding
the full
text) was seen as a real chore for both individuals and
departments/groups.
> c) I want to see my senior management show commitment and invest in
this
> service before I spend my time on it
Having a real pilot to demonstrate was important in getting
institutional
commitment. Institutional commitment is then important to activity on
the
scale of a whole university and also helps sway other researchers. Real
success may come from an accumulation of enthusiasm on all fronts!
>
> ... they are subtly different concerns ...
>
> I also think Stevan is right that there are different interests at
stake:
> "Let us hope that their institutions and funders will have the good
sense
> to
> adopt policies that require (and reward) their researchers for doing
what
> is
> in their own best interests (as well as the best interests of their
> institutions and funders)"
>
> Maybe preservation policies serve a need at an institutional level,
and a
> sector-wide level, whereas there is much less of a need from an
individual
> depositor: they might see preservation of their content as "added
value"?,
> but it doesn't service as an actual incentive to deposit?
If the deposit process can really fit in with the working practices of
the
researchers (not entirely straightforward with an IR with many
departments and
local practices) then, to some extent, preservation becomes a natural
consequence of its constant usage by large numbers of people. This, in
essence, is what happened in the arXiv community (with the background
support
of the HEP library community). When everyone cites all their papers by
reference to the arXiv then it is likely that some business model will
be
found to sustain it long term. If we have a sustainable repository we
can
simply ensure we include preservation features to enable the repository
to do
its job more effectively.
Jessie
>
>
> Amber
>
>
> Amber Thomas
> Programme Manager, Information Environment / Repositories
> JISC Executive, University of Bristol
> 2nd Floor, Beacon House, Queens Road, Bristol, BS8 1QU
> Mobile: 07920 534933
> Email: [log in to unmask]
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Repositories discussion list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Theo Andrew
> Sent: 31 March 2006 09:19
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Concern of longevity and lack of active engagement from
> researchers with institutional repositories
>
> Peter, Helen
>
> When we were initially setting up our repository and looking for early
> adopters to populate content (Early 2003) one of the intial barriers
we
> hit
> was the fact that we did not have a long-term business model. Because
the
> repository was set up with short-term project money we found that it
was
> hard to persuade researchers to change their research publication
habits
> to
> deposit papers with us.
>
> So, although we found there was generally **very little or no concern
> about
> digital preservation** from researchers, Helen is entirely correct
when
> she
> says that 'longevity here also applies to the financial sustainability
of
> the repository itself as a business operation, in addition to its
> content'.
>
> It's a simple fact bourne out by experience- however good it's
cultural or
> technical benefits are, people will not wholeheartedly adopt a new
> innovation (like repositories) if there are doubts over the long-term
> viability.
>
> Much as I hate analogies - think about next generation DVD players -
are
> you
> going to buy a Blu-Ray DVD (OA archives?) or HD-DVD (OA journals?) in
the
> next couple of months, or are you going to stick with the present DVD
> format
> until the dust settles? (I know this analogy is not perfect because OA
> archiving is perfectly compatible with OA journals and even
'toll-access'
> journals, but the basic point about technology still remains true)
>
> This is why it is important to get central funding for the repository
> service, like Southampton, Edinburgh, Glasgow etc.
>
> Theo
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Repositories discussion list
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Peter Nix
> Sent: 30 March 2006 22:47
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Concern of longevity and lack of active engagement from
> researchers with institutional repositories
>
> Helen,
>
> Is it that you have already looked for, and found, a great deal of
> evidence
> that suggests the falsity of the statement?
>
> Peter
>
> On 30 Mar 2006, at 21:09, Helen Hockx-Yu wrote:
>
> > Hi All,
> >
> > I should be grateful if anyone can provide me some evidence to back
> > the following statement:
> >
> > "Concern of longevity has contributed to the lack of active
engagement
> > from many researchers [with institutional repositories]. Guarantee
of
> > long-term preservation helps enhance a repository's trustworthiness
by
> > giving authors confidence in the future accessibility and more
> > incentives to deposit content"
> >
> > I guess longevity here also applies to the financial sustainability
of
> > the repository itself as a business operation, in addition to its
> > content.
> >
> > Thanks in advance.
> >
> > Kind regards,
> >
> > Helen Hockx-Yu
> > Programme Manager
> > JISC Office, Kings College London
> > Strand Bridge House (3rd Floor)
> > 138-142 Strand
> > London WC2R 1HH
> > Tel: 020 7848 1803
> > Mobile: 07813 024633
> >
>
> --
> Peter Nix, AHRC CentreCATH, School of Fine Art, History of Art &
Cultural
> Studies, Old Mining Building, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK.
> http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cath/ http://www.leeds.ac.uk/fine_art/
> Eml: [log in to unmask] Tel: 0113 343 2580 Fax: 0113 343 1628
>
--
Jessie Hey
Research Fellow PRESERV http://preserv.eprints.org/
University of Southampton Research Repository
http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/
see also TARDIS eprints project http://tardis.eprints.org/
Dr. JMN Hey ([log in to unmask])
Tel: +44 (0)23 8059 3256 Fax +44 (0)23 8059 2865 mob: +447900584204
University of Southampton Research Repository
http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/
see also TARDIS eprints project http://tardis.eprints.org/
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