LCoNZInstitutional Research Repository Project

Overview

• LCoNZ – history and background

• IRR Project – why, what, how

• Lessons learned

• Future directions

LCoNZ – history and background

Four shareholder members• Auckland University of Technology• University of Waikato, Hamilton• Victoria University of Wellington• University of Otago, Dunedin

IRAMS (Information and Resource Access Management Systems)• Integrated Library Management System (Voyager)• Suite of software required to access and manage licensed electronic

resources, provide federated searching and deep linking at the digital content level (Serials Solutions products)

• Support for the storage, management and access to locally created digital objects (IRR Project)

Commitment to common software in a shared hosted environment

Institutional Research Repository Project - WHY

• CONZUL endorsement of open access to research and scholarly literature in 2004

• Requirement by research funding bodies that publicly funded research be made available on open access

• Need to expand local knowledge and expertise in the development of Institutional Repositories (IR)

• Key experts had suggested that IR were becoming a “must” but an unnecessarily expensive “must” if done by every university.

• Possible economies of scale in development of multi-institutional repositories

• LCoNZ infrastructure already in place for the development of a multi-institutional repository

Institutional Research Repository Project - WHAT

Project Goals• Use the collaborative infrastructure of LCoNZ to investigate the

management of New Zealand digital collections• Evaluate different repository solutions to extend members

experience of both proprietary and open source software applications

• Propose cost-effective options for an externally-hosted multi-institutional repository

• Grow the capability within LCoNZ that will lead to sustainable, continuous access to NZ digital collections for learning and research

• Initially be confined to repositories for research outputs with the expectation that a single preferred solution would be recommended

Institutional Research Repository Project - WHAT

Phase 1 (Sept – Nov 2006)• Agree on criteria for the evaluation of selected repository solutions• Evaluate different repository solutions, both open source and

proprietary • Make recommendations on the most suitable option for the

development of a sustainable, multi-institutional IR

Phase 2 (Dec 06 – Mar 07)• Investigate hosting options, both in-house and commercial• Compare costs, advantages and disadvantages of each option• Recommend a preferred option

Phase 3 (in progress)• Implementation

Institutional Research Repository Project - HOW

Phase 1 (Sept – Nov 2006)• Project teams established• Research and fact-finding• Agreement on functional requirements• Identified IR applications for evaluation• Functionality testing• Usability testing• Collation of results and final report

Recommendations• DSpace recommended as the most feasible option for the majority

of members• Proceed to Phase 2 – investigate hosting options for a multi-

institutional repository using DSpace

Institutional Research Repository Project - HOWPhase 2 (Dec 06 – Mar 07)• Estimated storage capacity requirements for IRs• Identified 4 possible hosting options

- individual in-house (individual IRs hosted locally)

- individual commercial (one or more IRs hosted commercially)

- shared in-house (all four IRs hosted by one institution)

- shared commercial (all four IRs hosted commercially) • Discussed advantages, disadvantages and estimated costs with IT

Directors

Recommendations• Four IRs hosted in a shared environment by Waikato University• Proceed to Phase 3 – Implementation

Institutional Research Repository Project - HOW

Phase 3 (just beginning….)

• LCoNZ committed to funding a multi-institutional repository in a shared hosted environment

• LCoNZ members are not compelled to use the shared repository and all four members may not be in a position to immediately use a shared repository

• Engage a business analyst to define repository requirements of each member institution and identify requirements that are common to all

• Hosting Agreement with Waikato University• Project planning for development of IRs

Lessons Learned

Collaboration takes time and effort

Allow sufficient time for consultation and be really clear about why you are collaborating and what you plan to accomplish

Open source vs proprietary software solutions

Understand the differences and decide what type of solution you want before evaluating the available options

Technical infrastructure is not the major problem

But there are economies of scale and savings to be made by sharing technical infrastructure and technical expertise

Sharing knowledge, skills and expertise

Maximising your investment in human resources

Possible Future Directions

• Move from managing digital research objects to managing research data?

• Develop options for externally hosted multi-institutional repositories for a wide range of digital objects?

• Develop models for multi-institutional repositories that could be offered as a business arrangement to institutions beyond LCoNZ?

• Develop LCoNZ as a centre of excellence in the management of New Zealand digital collections?

Watch this space … www.lconz.ac.nz

Thank You

Larraine Shepherd

Associate University Librarian

(Digital Information Services)

Auckland University of Technology