Web 2.0 Interactivity in Open Access (OA) Repositories: An Analysis : Journal of Library and Information Sciences

"The adoption of Web 2.0 tools in open access repositories is indicate of the development of repositories for keeping pace with interactive technology. This paper is an earnest attempt to provide an overall picture of the application of Web 2.0 technologies and to analyze their number of occurrences in open access repositories. It has also brought into spotlight the region-wise diffusion of interactive web tools in open repositories. Englishinterfaced OA repositories enlisted in Directory of Open Access Repositories (DOAR) irrespective of their location, discipline, software, and type were manually accessed and the necessary data was harvested and tabulated. Of the total 1484 English-interfaced repositories, 1196 repositories (81%) were functional and 287 (19%) repositories were inaccessible. Of the functional repositories, 792 (66%) were Web 2.0 enabled and 405 (34%) have yet to embrace the Web 2.0 tools. Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is the most common Web 2.0 tool incorporated by the repositories (690) followed by FaceBook (291) and Twitter (266) respectively. On the other hand, Podcasts (12) and Wikis (7) are least in use. European region leads in terms of the number of OA repositories with 531 operational repositories and 393 (74.01%) as Web 2.0 enabled succeeded by North America, with 356 functional repositories, out of which 207 (58.15%) are Web 2.0 enabled. Central America maintains only one repository which is devoid of Web 2.0 tools. The mushrooming number of repositories have to increase their visibility by adopting more number of interactive technological tools. The potency of Web 2.0 tools in supporting the accessibility of knowledge and in the success of the repositories need to be researched "