Building a Digital Repository Program with Limited Resources

Citation

Toland, E. (2011), "Building a Digital Repository Program with Limited Resources", Library Review, Vol. 60 No. 4, pp. 351-352. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242531111127929

Digital repository work is becoming of increasing importance to HE libraries, where it can be seen as a way of achieving major improvements in scholarly communication. From the point of view of an individual HE institution, a digital repository can represent a means of centralising and showcasing the work of research staff, raising the profile of the institution as a result. Yet while there are strong arguments in favour of hosting a digital repository, establishing and running this type of digital service is a complex task with a wide range of technological and resource implications. What is the best approach to setting one up? What are the guiding principles? What are the first steps? What are the major opportunities, issues and potential problems? These are the questions that Abby Clobridge sets out to answer. In doing so, she has written an important book for librarians and repository managers. It is one of the few texts available dealing with developing and sustaining digital repositories. It provides clear and practical guidance on how to do so, and covers the technical aspects in detail but in an accessible way. This in itself makes the book very valuable. However, its importance to librarians lies also in the central argument of the book – that digital repositories offer librarians further opportunities to support scholarship within HE institutions, and to become embedded in the learning and teaching process.

The book is in two parts. Part one focuses on the main considerations involved in the initial setting up stage, and offers advice for strategic planning and making key decisions during this phase. Within the technical overview, the most popular open source repository systems are described (EPrints, DSpace, Fedora) and guidance is provided for choosing a system, such as whether to have the system hosted locally, or by a commercial vendor. The area of staffing is given good coverage and the responsibilities of the repository coordinator and related roles are addressed. This section also includes strategies for dealing with complex real‐life situations in cost‐effective ways, such as working with multiple systems and handling different media formats.

In part two, the focus is on how to sustain an efficient repository system in the long‐term. There are helpful discussions of metadata standards and protocols, and Clobridge highlights the importance of establishing an appropriate metadata schema for the individual institution. She also shows that while metadata work may appear similar to cataloguing, it in fact requires a different set of skills and expertise. The discussion opens out to cover project planning and management, and includes strategies for working with members of faculty and other partners within an institution. She provides practical advice on how to work with academics and faculty staff to create common goals and a cooperative ethos in order to implement digital initiatives in a successful way. This joint work is crucial to disseminating the benefits of the digital repository to the wider learning community, to bringing traditional library expertise to bear in an entirely new environment, and in Clobridge's phrase “taking the library out of the library building”.

Clobridge's aims are to write a primer for librarians starting out to develop digital repositories and to offer a handbook for those currently engaged in sustaining one. She has been very successful in these tasks, providing a clearly articulated and practical roadmap for the implementation of digital initiatives in HE institutions. In addition, she reasserts the professionalism of librarians and claims a major role for them in the development of a strong and dynamic learning community, with the library at the centre of the campus. This is an important reminder in the current climate. Judged merely by its title, this book might be regarded as specific, narrow and technical, relevant only to those interested in creating and managing digital repositories. For its main argument about the role of the librarian however, it deserves a much wider readership among librarians interested in supporting staff and students in new ways.