The Impact of Institutional Repositories on Technical Services

Abstract: The library technical services units at the Ohio State University Libraries are heavily involved in the operation of the institutional repository. A literature review revealed that the majority of articles addressing the impact of institutional repositories on library operations emphasize the role of public services. In an effort to determine if the Ohio State experience was unusual, a survey was sent to 123 Association of Research Libraries libraries through the Association of Research Libraries directors' listserv. The survey was designed to determine how the management and workload associated with institutional repositories is distributed across the library including whether institutional repository responsibilities are fulfilled in technical services and whether there has been reorganization of technical services to handle the institutional repository. Twenty-one percent of the libraries returned the survey. Most of the institutions indicated that the operation and management of the institutional repository is distributed across multiple units of the library. Most also reported heavy technical services involvement. The fact that 86% of the technical services positions involved in the institutional repository are not new indicates that, in general, technical services units have not been reorganized. Overall, there are many similarities between Ohio State and the institutions responding to our survey. The services for the institutional repository are widely distributed across multiple units of libraries and the institutions in this study reported heavy technical services involvement. However, the involvement of technical services at Ohio State is among the strongest.