Quickly following what many expected to be a wholesale revolution in library practices, institutional repositories encountered unforeseen problems and a surprising lack of impact. Clunky or cumbersome interfaces, lack of perceived value and use by scholars, fear of copyright infringement, and the like tended to dampen excitement and adoption. This collection of essays, arranged in five thematic sections, is intended to take the pulse of institutional repositories—to see how they have matured and what can be expected from them, as well as introduce what may be the future role of the institutional repository.
Type of Material:
Open (Access) Textbook
Recommended Uses:
This resource could be assigned for reading in a course. It could also serve as reference material for classes/workshops, or professional use for developing institutional repositories.
Technical Requirements:
Browser or pdf viewer
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Students will learn how to choose an institutional repository (IR) platform, how to set IR policies, how to recruit and create IR content, and how to measure an IR's success.
Students will begin to have a deeper understanding of IRs by having access to IR case studies.
Target Student Population:
Graduate School, Professional
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
General knowledge on institutional repositories, scholarly communication, and technology
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The content of this textbook is well-rounded and provides a good overview of topics related to starting, maintaining, assessing, and developing repositories.
The material is accurate and well curated.
The book covers the essential concepts associated with IRs. It provides references for further reading as well as numerous examples in the sections.
This book is very useful when you want to learn more about a specific topic on IRs, because you can read and understand a section without having to read the entirety of the book.
Concerns:
As with any work that discusses technology, this book may become outdated.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
Those that manage IRs will find this book useful. LIS students, especially those interested in scholarly communications, may also find it helpful.
While you can refer to the sections separately, reading multiple sections or the entire book will give a fuller sense of the issues pertaining to IRs.
The well-cited nature of its content also provides many more avenues for continuing research.
Concerns:
This text would be appropriate for graduate students. It is not structured like most textbooks. Developing a study guide for this book would likely be helpful for use with students.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The book is easy to use with clear instructions. The sections and chapters are available to select on the PDF left-side menu, making it easy to scroll through.
Concerns:
The book has some black and white images, graphs, charts, etc. On one hand having images could date the book as IRs and related websites change in style over the years. On the other hand, visually representing the different concepts is very useful especially for those with little to no experience with IRs.
Creative Commons:
Search by ISBN?
It looks like you have entered an ISBN number. Would you like to search using what you have
entered as an ISBN number?
Searching for Members?
You entered an email address. Would you like to search for members? Click Yes to continue. If no, materials will be displayed first. You can refine your search with the options on the left of the results page.
Searching for Members?
You entered an email address. Would you like to search for members? Click Yes to continue. If no, materials will be displayed first. You can refine your search with the options on the left of the results page.
