Why So Many Repositories? Examining the Limitations and Possibilities of The Institutional Repositories (IR) Landscape

Kenning Arlitsch*, Carl Grant

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

Academic libraries fail to take advantage of the network effect because they manage too many digital repositories locally. While this argument applies to all manner of digital repositories, this article examines the fragmented environment of institutional repositories (IRs), in which effort and costs are duplicated, numerous software platforms and versions are managed simultaneously, metadata are applied inconsistently, users are served poorly, and libraries are unable to take advantage of collective data about content and users. In the meantime, commercial IR vendors and academic social networks have shown much greater success with cloud-based models. Collectively, the library profession has enough funding to create a national-level IR, but it lacks the willingness to abandon local control.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)264-281
Number of pages18
JournalJournal of Library Administration
Volume58
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 3 Apr 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • IT management
  • collective action
  • digital repositories
  • enterprise institutional repositories
  • institutional repositories
  • library administration
  • network effect
  • open access

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