Dirk,
As you say, this is a definition from the service provider point of view. And to be a good repository, it should be able to deliver all those things.
But a repository is more than just an application which can provide services and meet this or that standard. I know that what Chris is looking for is ways of measuring the value of repositories, but we could ensure that we meet all sorts of standards and requirements, and still fall by the wayside in the end, since it is all too easy to lose sight of the main business.
And the main business is? Open Access and repositories were, in the beginning, a response to the scholarly communications crisis. The expense of academic publishing is now even greater than it was, and we are not addressing the problem with the clarity we once did. For some of us, making materials available as open access items via repositories is not just a sticking plaster measure to ameliorate the shortcomings of the existing publishing and dissemination routes for academia, but part of a set of attitudes and technologies which require to be in place to alter those dissemination routes, in favour of routes which *entirely* meet the requirements of academia.
My tuppence worth for Tuesday.
Philip
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Philip Hunter
Digital Library Grants &
Project Coordinator
Digital Library Section
Edinburgh University Library
George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LJ
Tel +44 (0)131 651 3768
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-----Original Message-----
From: Repositories discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dirk Pieper
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 1:29 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: What makes a good repository?
Hi,
from a service provider point of view a good repository
- should really give open access to documents (not only to metadata)
- should be really OAI-PMH-compliant
- the form of entries (personal names, subject headings, ...) should follow some basic resource description standards
- language description should follow a standard (e.g ISO 639-1)
- document typ description should follow a standard (e.g. according to DRIVER
guidelines)
- should provide sufficient subject information (keywords, classification,
abstract)
From my point of view the quality of content and metadata is the preconditon for everthing that follows - like visibilty, usage, standing of repositories within institutions, citation rates, ... - and is the key in the competition with publishers and Google Scholar.
Best
Dirk
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Dirk Pieper
Bielefeld UL - BASE
Universitätsstr. 25, D-33615 Bielefeld
E-mail: [log in to unmask] | Tel.: +49 521 106-4010
Fax: +49 521 106-4052
www.ub.uni-bielefeld.de
www.base-search.net
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