Developing Institutional Repositories: Considering Copyright Issues

Abstract:  The development of Institutional Repositories (IRs) was the outcome of several Open Access Initiatives and Movements made to salvage the dwindling scholarly communication. The development is more than a decade now and has been embraced by many universities and academic institutions. This paper discusses the nexus of copyright laws and the institutional repositories and reveals the fact that open access institutional repository is built on the principle of no restriction of access. Therefore, the paper opines that copyright issues must be treated in form of licenses which creators must give to allow contents to be included in the repositories. The paper recommends the teaching of copyright laws to authors (faculty members and students) and library staff who deposit and manage the repositories respectively and also that protocols for managing creators/publishers copyright licenses are employed.