Creating an institutional repository at a challenged institution

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to show how an institutional repository can be successfully created by university libraries with limited financial and technological resources.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper the library's experience creating an institutional repository despite financial and technological limitations is recounted.

Findings

The paper finds that a serviceable repository may be created by focusing on its critical elements, and adapting existing resources, including a proprietary system currently used for other digital resources.

Practical implications

The paper shows that librarians should not assume that open‐source systems are the only vehicles for providing institutional repositories, or that such a service is necessarily beyond their capabilities.

Originality/value

Academic libraries do not have to follow an involved, idealized process to create an institutional repository based upon open‐source software. Systems already at hand, even if proprietary, may be adapted and real‐world limitations surmounted to create such a resource.

Citation

Kelly, J.C. (2007), "Creating an institutional repository at a challenged institution", OCLC Systems & Services: International digital library perspectives, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 142-147. https://doi.org/10.1108/10650750710748441