Workflow Development for an Institutional Repository in an Emerging Research Institution

Abstract

INTRODUCTION This paper describes the process librarians in the Albert B. Alkek Library at T exas State University undertook to increase the amount of faculty publications in their institutional repository, known as the Digital Collections. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM Digital Collections at Texas State University is built on a DSpace platform and serves as the location for electronic theses and dissertations, faculty publications, and other digital Texas State University materials. Despite having launched the service in 2005, the amount of faculty work added to the repository has never been at the levels initially hoped for on launch. DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WORKFLOW Taking a proactive and cooperative approach, a team of librarians developed and piloted a workflow, in which library staff would retain the already established protocol of gaining faculty permissions prior to uploading material while respecting publisher copyright policies. RESULTS Prior to the vita project, the repository archived 305 faculty publications total. Fifty-seven were added during the pilot, which represents an 18.5% increase. Of a total of 496 articles, seventeen titles were found in the blue category, which allows publisher pdfs to be archived. The majority of articles (233) were found in the green category, which allows either a pre-or a post-print copy of an article to be archived. One hundred ten of the identified titles were in the yellow and white journal categories, representing 22% of our total, and the team was able to archive only five of these. Finally, 16% (81) were not found in the SHERPA/ RoMEO database (color-coded beige). Only 18 of these articles were archived. ASSESSMENT We discovered that our faculty retain nearly none of their pre-print or post-print versions of their published articles, and so we are unable to archive those titles in the repository. Nearly 47% of the articles found were in green journals that allow only pre-or post-print copies. Most faculty were unable to produce versions of their work other than the publisher's PDF, which many publishers restrict from upload into a repository.

Leadership, Development, and Expertise: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Scholarly Communication Librarian Position Announcements

“…(See These job titles demonstrate the breadth of SC-related functions and align with previously identified relationships between SC and collections (Finlay et al, 2015, p. 20), open access, digital publishing, and legal issues associated with research and publication (Xia & Li, 2015, p. 18). Literature on institutional repository (IR) workflows describe obtaining information about self-archiving rights or publishers' copyright policies as a significant responsibility of the IR team (Hazzard & Towery, 2017;Hanlon & Ramirez, 2011, p. 693;Madsen & Oleen, 2013). Six advertisements reviewed in this study listed a Juris Doctorate as a preferred qualification beyond an ALA-accredited MLS for SC librarian positions.…”

“…It is important that job advertisements situate positions in the organizational structure and clarify what, if any, existing SC infrastructure is in place. For example, literature on IR workflow development describes the work as a team effort (Hanlon & Ramirez, 2011;Hazzard & Towery, 2017;Madsen & Oleen, 2013;Marsh, Wackerman, & Stubbs, 2017). Job postings should describe to the candidate any existing SC infrastructure already in place, such as an existing IR or SC department.…”

Opening Up Open Access Institutional Repositories to Demonstrate Value: Two Universities’ Pilots on Including Metadata-Only Records

“…An OA mandate, the literature reveals, also did not mean that faculty retained the permitted (pre-or postprint) versions of their publications. Hazzard and Towery (2017) discovered that "faculty retain nearly none of their pre-print versions of their published articles, and so we are unable to archive those titles in the repository. Most faculty were unable to produce versions of their work (pre-prints) other than the publisher's PDF, which many publishers restrict from upload into a repository" (p. 9).…”

Faculty’s and Postgraduate Students’ Awareness of and Attitudes to Using the Institutional Repository

“…Mark and Shearer (2006) assert that the poor uptake of IRs is a worldwide phenomenon and is common where voluntary compliance is the norm. This assertion is buttressed by Hazzard and Towery (2017) who also assert that merely passing OA policies does not guarantee increased faculty engagement in OA initiatives. Tay (2017) further bolsters this assertion through arguing that despite the flood of mandates from institutions and funders, most IRs are in fact full of entries that contain only bibliographic details and no full texts.…”