Repositories and One More Thing

"While editing one of the articles in the current issue [of D-Lib Magazine], Representation and Recognition of Subject Repositories, I had to ask the authors why CiteSeer was classified as a repository, since I knew it as an index. The authors educated me on this (see the article, Note 6, for their answer) and, as they pointed out, the exchange between us made one of their points — that the topic of subject repositories was underdeveloped and in need of clarification. I believe that they make their case and also that the notion of repositories in general, at least as it relates to digital libraries, is indeed evolving. Are repositories primarily storage mechanisms, primarily access mechanisms, mainly about technology, mainly about policy, or some combination of the above? Is this what libraries are becoming or are repositories just another technology to be used in whatever finally becomes of what we now think of as libraries? The answer will surely be more nuanced than any simple yes or no answer to my rhetorically simplistic questions, but it is clear that the topic is increasingly central to any discussion of digital libraries. Most of the other articles in this [September-October] issue also relate to repositories, either directly or indirectly...."