Digital Repositories : An investigation of best practices for content recruitment to academic digital repositories and the conditions for their livelihood
eekilcer@gmail.com's bookmark collection 2012-12-31
Summary:
"...This thesis explores best practices for content recruitment to digital repositories, through the review of literature, and an empirical investigation of practices and experience from Electronic Theses and Dissertations repositories. The motives for self-archiving amongst users of the CERN-Theses Database are also assessed. The thesis concludes that mandatory polices for self-archiving at institutions is to be recommended. Furthermore, this thesis suggests that the practice of self-archiving in institutional repositories should be initiated, rather than relying on alternative ways of recruiting content (for example archiving by library staff and administrative personnel). The work recommends merging the institutional repository with the institution’s working tools for storing of work in progress and work sharing...Additionally, the thesis discusses the purpose of an institutional repository contra a subject repository as well as the appropriate level of co-existence between institutional repositories, subject repositories and journals, both subscription based and Open Access. The thesis argues that each of these entities serve a distinct function within the value chain of academic communication, and are thus suitable for co-existence. However, all stakeholders might benefit from clearer role division, and specialization towards their core functions."