Foreword to "The Institutional Repository: Benefits and Challenges" | Assn. for Library Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS)

Use the link to access the full text from the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) Paper Series.  An excerpt from the foreword reads as follows: "Institutional repositories (IRs) continue to be the 'online locus for collecting, preserving, and disseminating—in digital form—the intellectual output of an institution, particularly a research institution.'1 This straightforward definition belies the complex nature of the institutional repository movement. An entire industry has been spawned around IRs. Numerous articles and book-length treatises provide libraries with solutions for creating IRs.2 Websites have sprung up to organize this wealth of information and examine every aspect of the repository movement.3 Despite the abundance of information on IRs, librarians consistently show an interest in learning more about their promises and pitfalls, and they seek practical advice on creating, maintaining, implementing, and marketing them. To capitalize on the ongoing interest in IRs, in the winter of 2009, the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) presented a symposium entitled 'Implementing an Institutional Repository: Benefits and Challenges.' The enthusiastic response to the presentations made at that meeting led to the development of a series of webinars about various aspects of institutional repository creation and then to the adaptation and expansion of some of the presentations from both the symposium and the webinars into this publication.4 The chapters are evaluated according to a stringent editorial review process; however, rather than waiting until all the chapters are complete, each is made available online as it is finished..."