The Institutional Repository

Citation

Robertson, R.J. (2008), "The Institutional Repository", Library Review, Vol. 57 No. 7, pp. 549-550. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530810894068

The Institutional Repository is authored by three experienced developers and implementers of institutional repositories and clearly benefits from their work in developing the Edinburgh Research Archive – one of the early implementations of institutional repository software in the UK. They bring to the book their hands‐on experience in software development, repository management, institutional advocacy, and intellectual property management and offer a comprehensive overview of setting up an institutional repository.

After an introductory chapter examining the role and place of “The institutional repository in the digital library”, the next five chapters of the book tackle the key questions that face those responsible for implementing a institutional repository. They address issues surrounding “establishing a repository; technologies and technicalities; workflow and administration; advocacy; and intellectual property”. The seventh and final chapter of the book is a case study which illustrates how the authors tackled these key questions in setting up the Edinburgh Research Archive.

The Institutional Repository also provides six appendices, each providing an overview of a leading piece of institutional repository software. The book has a table of contents with chapter and top level section headings, list of illustrations and list of tables, a glossary (providing a list of abbreviations as well as a list of definitions), bibliography, and an extensive index.

It is well written in an accessible style and its structuring of the text and provision of good supporting materials in the front and back matter make it easy to navigate the book and pinpoint particular topics. Some of the chapters also include introductory sections which provide an overview of what the chapter will address and concluding sections which review what the chapter has covered. As a result the book is accessible to the novice reader and easy to use as a guide or reference resource.

The book is full of useful advice and guidelines that the authors have drawn from their experience and research. It is very comprehensive, and, although there are a number of articles that might provide a better overview of one of these topics; this book is the best single reference resource I’m aware of in this area. The chapter “Establishing a repository” in itself is worth the price of the book as it provides those considering setting up a repository with a note of the different skill sets necessary to set up a repository and their approximate cost.

There are a number of minor difficulties with the book, the most significant being that it makes assumptions about a reader's familiarity with related topics (for example, what OAI‐PMH is). Although the glossary offsets this to an extent, it would be a challenging book for a student or a complete beginner to use as an introduction to the field. Other minor problems are inconsistencies in style between the authors; most notably with respect to the inclusion or omission of the introductory and concluding sections mentioned above. Another minor issue arises is that, the book has few references and the bibliography is relatively thin and is not broken down by chapter or annotated in any other form. As the book draws so extensively from the authors’ experience this may not be overly surprising but it may frustrate readers wanting to pursue particular strands of thought.

This is a good book and, although there is plenty of technical advice in it, Jones, Andrew, and MacColl have excelled at providing a book that will stimulate the thinking of those charged with setting up or managing institutional repositories. The book is relevant to a much wider audience than that set of people, but for them, above all, this book is essential reading.