Overview

It will be surprising if there are any tertiary-level research-based or teaching institutions in Europe that do not have a digital repository within a few years. Worldwide, repositories have been increasing at an average rate of about one per day over the last year or so and this can be expected to gather pace further. The reasons for having a repository are so compelling, the advantages so obvious, the payoff so potentially large, that no institution seriously intent upon its mission, and upon enhancing its profile and internal functioning, will want to disadvantage itself badly by not having one (or more).

Digital repositories can also be developed and maintained by a subject community (or entity acting on behalf of a subject community). These are more usually established by harvesting content from institutional repositories, but there are a few exceptions where subject community repositories attract content from the creators directly. Institutional and subject repositories have many purposes in common, but institutions find additional, institution- specific advantages in having a repository, too. Digital repositories have a number of functions or foci:

• – to open up and offer the outputs of the institution or community to the World

• – to impact on and influence developments by maximising the visibility of outputs and providing the greatest possible chance of enhanced impact as a result

• – to showcase and sell the institution to interested constituencies – prospective staff, prospective students and other stakeholders

• – to collect and curate digital outputs (or inputs, in the case of special collections)

• – to manage and measure research and teaching activities

• – to provide and promote a workspace for work-in-progress, and for collaborative or large-scale projects

• – to facilitate and further the development and sharing of digital teaching materials and aids

• – to support and sustain student endeavours, including providing access to theses and dissertations and providing a location for the development of e-portfolios

This chapter covers the business issues around digital repositories – their raisons d’être, putting forth a business case for repositories, the costs and resources associated with them, and the things managers must think about and plan for in sustaining and developing them. Repositories can cost a lot to establish, or very little.