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The purpose of this paper is to look at the prospects and challenges of digitising library resources and building digital repositories in the University of Malawi Libraries.

Data collected through online questions sent to college librarians, ICT director and systems administrator (Chancellor College and Bunda College) and assistant librarians or repository co-ordinators in the constituent colleges of the University of Malawi (UNIMA) coupled with technical reports on digital and institutional repository projects in the UNIMA Libraries.

The results of the study have indicated that the UNIMA Libraries are digitising library resources and building digital repositories though the pace is very slow. Bandwidth has increased though accessibility of the resources is hampered by its inadequacy. The databases are frequently attacked by viruses and are locally available through intranet. Policy statements were not drawn for the projects, instead an insertion was done in the research and publications rules and regulations on copyright for theses and dissertations. The majority of the projects lack technical skills, especially running the systems in secure operating Linux-based system environments. Three of the five colleges adopted Greenstone, two adopted DSpace and one adopted Procite depending on the training received and the source of funding. The initial projects relied on external funding for their roll out.

The study recommends that college librarians should lobby for training in ICT skills in order to sustain the projects. Funding for digital repositories should be included in the annual budget estimates of the college libraries. Librarians should draw policies specifically for digitisation of library resources, copyright and building of digital repositories in the UNIMA Libraries. ICT department should assist in migrating the repositories to Linux-based environments.

There is little researched information on digitisation of library resources and building digital repositories in Malawi, yet there is quite a variety of rare information about the country. This research will add some information on the progress made in digitising Malawiana collection which has cultural heritage, educational and research value.

This study aims to illustrate how one medium‐sized academic library was able to use a web‐based digitization and repository project to increase and promote communication and relationships between the library and the university community. This case study traces the history and development of the Cornerstone Project – the Network of Alabama Academic Library's (NAAL) state‐wide digital repository project.

The paper describes the steps taken by a medium‐sized academic library to participate in a state‐wide institutional repository project to improve on liaison activities, and form new relationships with departments across the campus.

Using the digital repository project to help bridge gaps between departments that had limited or no involvement with the library and its services, one medium‐sized academic library found that its involvement in the repository project resulted in a new and improved interdepartmental relationship.

The results have encouraged the library to open the door for new and different relationships to be formed with other departments. The implications and value for other libraries to become involved in such repositories are also discussed.

The purpose of this research is to identify and evaluate the collections within digital libraries and repositories in India available in the public domain.

The digital libraries and repositories were identified through a study of the literature, as well as internet searching and browsing. The resulting digital libraries and repositories were explored to study their collections.

Use of open source software especially for the creation of institutional repositories is found to be common. However, major digital library initiatives such as the Digital Library of India use custom‐made software. The collection size in most digital libraries and repositories is in a few hundreds.

The paper highlights the state of digital libraries and repositories in India in late 2007.

The paper is the first of its kind that attempts to identify and evaluate digital libraries and repositories in India. It also gives a comprehensive listing of digital libraries and institutional repositories in India available in the public domain.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an academic library’s successful implementation of a WordPress-based learning object repository (LOR) that facilitates widespread sharing of learning objects, allowing librarians to save prep time and to scale up the library instruction program. Both practical and technical implications of using WordPress software as a repository platform are discussed.

WordPress is free, open-source software that may be used as a platform for an LOR. By using WordPress software to create a public index of content hosted on a server, the library created an LOR that features a record for each learning object which contains metadata about the object’s format, content and accessibility. The WordPress platform/repository is also expandable, through additional free and paid plug-ins, to function as a simple learning management system that may also issue badges.

As a result of implementing an LOR, librarians save time prepping for classes by reusing or adapting their colleagues’ work, librarians are able to offer tutorials to online students and the repository also serves as a showcase for the library instruction program.

Many academic libraries are feeling increased pressure to scale up library instruction and serve more online students. This paper illustrates a case study of how one library uses an easy-to-implement and low-budget LOR to make progress toward these goals.

The purpose of this study was to investigate metadata creation practices in a functional academic institution repository in Malawi, with a specific focus on the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) library.

The study used a qualitative approach with a case study design. The study adopted a case study strategy that focuses on the in-depth, holistic and in-context examination of one or more cases. The researcher used non-probability purposive sampling to include all three LUANAR Digital Repository (LDR) staff at LUANAR library because they were thought to be knowledgeable about the LDR metadata work. The three library staff members directly involved in repository metadata were investigated for the study. Data collection techniques used in a case study approach included semi-structuring face-to-face interviews and documentary analysis. Data from interviews and documentary reviews were manually analyzed and presented in thematic categories based on the study’s objectives.

Qualified Dublin Core (DC) was chosen by all participants as the only metadata structure scheme that they will use to create and implement metadata in the repository. DC application profile was the only scheme used to enforce uniform naming and capitalization conventions in the application of Qualified DC element definitions. The scheme, however, was discovered to be the Qualified DC default format in the DSpace system. All participants indicated that the Agricultural Organization of the United Nations Vocabulary is used. Participants highlighted that institutional repository system compatibility, the subject matter of the resources, resource types and staff expertise influenced the selection criteria for the metadata schemes. The repository policy had been developed but had yet to be adopted by the LUANAR management.

The current study was limited to LUANAR library. A wider study across public and private universities in Malawi is needed to ascertain the role of metadata policy, technical knowledge and metadata specialist institutional repositories.

Metadata policy is to aid in the understanding of the data, ensuring that appropriate security measures are used to protect the data and for metadata harvesting purposes.

Academic libraries should lobby for management support towards metadata policy for institutional repositories.

Very little is known about challenges affecting the growth of institutional repositories and standards adopted, including metadata harvesting. This paper bridges the gap in metadata standards for institutional repositories in developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the development of the institutional repository of Utrecht University, the Igitur Archive. The Utrecht repository is unique for several reasons: it was started several years before the international repository movement began; the repository is combined with an e‐publishing service, Igitur, Utrecht Publishing and Archiving Services; and because the repository is firmly embedded in the structural tasks of the university library. This case‐study highlights the advantages and disadvantages of this particular situation.

In order to give an outline of the evolution of the Igitur Archive, the paper uses information from policy papers and annual reports of the Utrecht University Library and Utrecht University, from the business plan of Igitur and from the Proceedings of the Dutch DARE project. The findings are sorted in four sections: the start of e‐publishing in Utrecht; a section about Igitur; a section detailing the lessons learned; and finally a glance at the future is given.

The conclusion is that the position of Utrecht as an “early adapter” in the Dutch repository movement has caused some delays, but that the combination of the repository with the additional e‐publishing services has proved to be very fruitful. Igitur has developed a strong position and both the e‐publishing services and the repository have a sound base for further growth.

This paper gives useful information to other university libraries who want to start a repository and an e‐publishing service or who are already developing such services.

This paper aims to present an overview of the challenges encountered in integrating visual search interfaces into digital libraries and repositories. These challenges come in various forms, including information visualisation, the use of knowledge organisation systems and metadata quality. The main purpose of this study is the identification of criteria for the evaluation and integration of visual search interfaces, proposing guidelines and recommendations to improve information retrieval tasks with emphasis on the education-al context.

The information included in this study was collected based on a systematic literature review approach. The main information sources were explored in several digital libraries, including Science Direct, Scopus, ACM and IEEE, and include journal articles, conference proceedings, books, European project reports and deliverables and PhD theses published in an electronic format. A total of 142 studies comprised the review.

There are several issues that authors did not fully discuss in this literature review study; more specific, aspects associated with access of digital resources in digital libraries and repositories based on human computer interaction, i.e. usability and learnability of user interfaces; design of a suitable navigation method of search based on simple knowledge organisation schemes; and the use of usefulness of visual search interfaces to locate relevant resources.

The main steps for carrying out a systematic review are drawn from health care; this methodology is not commonly used in fields such as digital libraries and repositories. The authors aimed to apply the fundamentals of the systematic literature review methodology considering the context of this study. Additionally, there are several aspects of accessibility that were not considered in the study, such as accessibility to content for disabled people as defined by ISO/IEC 40500:2012.

No other systematic literature reviews have been conducted in this field. The research presents an in-depth analysis of the criteria associated with searching and navigation methods based on the systematic literature review approach. The analysis is relevant for researchers in the field of digital library and repository creation in that it may direct them to considerations in designing and implementing visual search interfaces based on the use of information visualisation.

Aims to describe one academic health science center library's experience with expanding reference librarian leadership roles in implementing institutional repository initiatives.

The institutional repository project development phases are briefly documented. The rationale for selecting reference librarians to lead the initiative and resultant role changes is discussed.

Reference librarians are strategically placed to promote and administer institutional repository initiatives successfully. The professional challenge rests in reference librarians' readiness to become scholarly publishing change agents.

This case study documents a successful approach to incorporating institutional repository projects into existing library roles in addition to providing new leadership opportunities for reference librarians.

Reference librarian roles in institutional repository projects and the evolution of organizational roles are not addressed in the heavily technology‐ and marketing‐based institutional repository literature.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the breadth of the challenges and issues facing institutional repositories in academic libraries, based on a survey of academic librarians. Particularly, this study covers the challenges and barriers related to data management facing institutional repositories.

The study uses a survey method to identify the relative significance of major challenges facing institutional repositories across six dimensions, including: data, metadata, technological requirements, user needs, ethical concerns and administrative challenges.

The results of the survey reveal that academic librarians identify limited resources, including insufficient budget and staff, as the major factor preventing the development and/or deployment of services in institutional repositories. The study also highlights crucial challenges in different dimensions of institutional repositories, including the sheer amount of data, institutional support for metadata creation and the sensitivity of data.

This study is one of a few studies that comprehensively identified the variety of challenges that institutional repositories face in operating academic libraries with a focus on data management in institutional repositories. In this study, 37 types of challenges were identified in six dimensions of institutional repositories. More importantly, the significance of those challenges was assessed from the perspective of academic librarians involved in institutional repository services.

This study aims to investigate the facilitating conditions (FCs) and how these FC affect institutional repository (IR) sustainability practices in public universities in Nigeria.

A survey research design was adopted in this study. The study population comprised 542 librarians from public universities that have IRs across Nigeria. A sample size of 230 librarians was determined using Taro Yamane’s formula. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the respondents in three stages, which were purposive, stratified and purposive sampling. A structured, validated questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential (simple and multiple regression) statistics at a 5% level of significance.

The result revealed that the availability of FCs (ßeta = 0.459, t(211) = 7.719, p = 0.000) has a positive and significant influence on IR sustainability in public university libraries in Nigeria. The F-test (1, 223) value of 59.582 shows that there is sufficient evidence to substantiate the model’s usefulness in explaining IR sustainability. The R² (0.211) indicates that 21.1% of the variation in IR sustainability is explained by the availability of FCs in public university libraries in Nigeria. The finding suggests that the availability of FCs is a vital predictor of IR sustainability in public university libraries in Nigeria. The result also depicts that out of the eight parameters that measure the availability of FCs, it was current awareness of IR that had a positive and significant influence on IR sustainability.

This study concluded that ICT skills and FCs are contributory factors to IR sustainability practices by librarians in public university libraries in Nigeria. It was recommended that university administrators formulate policies that promote the sustainability of IR and provide adequate funds to support IR sustainability. Furthermore, the library management in public university libraries in Nigeria should drive content recruitment and create awareness of the IRs among students and faculty to ensure continued use.