D-Lib Magazine March 2003 Volume 9 Number 3
Open Archives and UK Institutions: An Overview
by: Stephen Pinfield (Nottingham University)
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march03/pinfield/03pinfield.html
Excerpts:
Introduction:
"This is a pivotal stage in the development of institutional open
archives. We are moving from a position where awareness of the issues
surrounding self-archiving was restricted to a relatively small number
of enthusiasts to a position where it is entering the consciousness of
a large number of practice-based information professionals and some
faculty. The next two-to-three years may be crucial in determining
long-term take-up. This paper provides a brief overview of current
activity in the development of open archives (particularly e-print
repositories) within UK universities and similar institutions and
discusses some of the issues the open archives activity is raising...
Lesson 4: The biggest challenge is getting content.
"Setting up an institutional repository and designing collection
management policies are relatively straightforward; populating the
repository is not. The content of institutional repositories needs to
come largely from researchers within the institution, and persuading
them to submit this content is a major challenge. Self-archiving
requires a cultural change amongst researchers that can only be
achieved through significant advocacy activity...
Conclusions:
"An increasing number of information professionals and researchers
are beginning to recognize that the various OAI programmes and
activities have the potential to make a real difference to the
scholarly communication process and therefore bring enormous benefits
to the scholarly community."
http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march03/pinfield/03pinfield.html
