Building Institutional Repository Communities
Through Collaborative Strategies
An exploration of collaboration in the context of the
University of Wisconsin and its institutional repository,
MINDS@UW.
Lisa Saywell, Digital Repository Librarian
lsaywell@library.wisc.edu / 608.262.9470
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
The Context
University of Wisconsin Digital
Collections Center
 Contains:





214 hours of audio
216,055 citations
1595 finding aids
29,187 images
7,000 books and journals
comprised of 1,249,296
pages
 Serves:



13 Four-year campuses
13 Two-year campuses
Highly decentralized
environment
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
MINDS@UW--the Institutional Repository
Vital Statistics
 UW System institutional
repository
 Based on DSpace
software
 Approx. 1 year old
 20 active communities
and 15 in process
 Contains approx. 1700
items
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
An Institutional Repository and the Idea of Collaboration
 Desire of the faculty and
staff for a collaborative
workspace
 Collaborative projects as a
way to engage
stakeholders in exploring the
issues of scholarly
communication and Open
Access
 Collaboration and
integration as the keys to a
successful
institutional repository
program
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Collaborative Workspace--Research
My WebSpace
A Xythos instance
File Storage - My WebSpace
allows you to save your files
on a server that you can
easily access online from
anywhere.
Web Publishing - My WebSpace
supports basic web
publishing using a web
content folder.
File Sharing - Each user of My
WebSpace can share a file
or folder with an individual
or group of individuals.
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Collaborative Workspace--Instruction
Learn@UW
A Desire 2 Learn instance
Learn@UW is a collection of software tools
enabling instructors to create course web
sites with state-of-the-art communication,
collaboration, content delivery and
student assessment capabilities.
Learn@UW can be used to develop
stand-alone online courses for distance
education, or for creating resource rich
web sites to supplement campus courses.
Students access course materials within
Learn@UW via a standard web browser.
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Collaborative Workspace--Developers
Wisconsin Federated Resource for Developers (WFR)
“The WFR is a catalyst for the
development and electronic
publication of e-Learning
content for education in
Wisconsin. It does this by
innovatively networking
content developers with
shared resources and
colleagues.”
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Stakeholder Involvement—
MINDS@UW and the Open Access Movement
 The MINDS@UW digital repository is one way
in which the University of Wisconsin is
addressing the research community’s need
for new outlets in scholarly communication.
 MINDS@UW offers a promising alternative to
the self-archiving of pre-prints and post-prints
and provides faculty and staff a fast and
efficient method for publication and
dissemination of materials such as gray
literature, presentations, conference
proceedings, and research data.
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Stakeholder Involvement—
What can MINDS@UW do for faculty and staff?
 Promising alternative to self-archiving
 Fast and efficient “publication” and dissemination of
their work
 Increased visibility (Googleable)
 Time-saving administration of digital content
 Usage reports that track use of content
 Email notification of new content
 Permanent archiving abilities
 Search capabilities
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Stakeholder Involvement—Faculty Concerns
 Intellectual property rights
 What is the nature of the content?
 Sherpa (http://www.sherpa.ac.uk)
 Access
 Who can use the content?
 How can they use the content?
 Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/)
 Policies
 Who decides what goes into the repository?
 Workload
 Who does the work?
 How much time does it take?
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Stakeholder Involvement—
Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing
 Creation of the Office
of Scholarly
Communication and
Publishing to facilitate
faculty and staff
involvement in
transforming scholarly
communication
 Integration of
MINDS@UW project into
this office’s charge and
mission
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Collaborative Strategies for Institutional Repositories
 Harvest and inventory content available on
departmental and research center websites
 Use library liaisons to discuss and encourage
participation in the repository
 Create contacts on each campus to coordinate and
promote the use of the repository
 Coordinate with existing system-wide administrative
units
 Acquire extant databases from departments and
research centers
 Assist librarians, faculty, and researchers with selfarchiving projects
 Integrate the repository into the preservation and
access plans for digital publishing projects
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Harvest and Inventory Content


Partners:
 Subject librarians—Engineering
Library
 Colleges, departments and
research centers—College of
Engineering (COE)
Goals:
 Add content to and encourage
the use of the repository
 Identify repository needs and uses
 Create an easy way for faculty
and researchers to participate in
the repository
 Highlight the research output of the
COE
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Utilize Library Liaisons
 Partners:



Library Liaisons—My Librarian Program
Public service librarians
Faculty and researchers
 Goals:


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Actively involve public service librarians
in the repository project
Encourage faculty and staff to create
repository communities and collections
Generate discussions of the issues
involved in scholarly communication
and Open Access
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Create Campus Contacts

Partners:
 Campus Library directors
 Library contacts
 Campus administrators
 Learning Technologists

Goals:
 Customize messages to the needs of individual campuses
 Empower campus libraries to generate interest in the creation
of communities and collections in the repository
 Distribute the administration of repository communities and
collections
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Coordinate with Existing Administrative Units
 Partners:
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

System-wide administrative units—
Women’s Studies Consortium
Subject librarians—
Women’s Studies Librarian
Faculty and researchers
 Goals:



Facilitate the creation of communities across campuses through
a centralized organizational structure
Gain administrative support for the repository
Highlight the materials created by the unit
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Acquire Existing Databases
 Partners:
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Departments and research centers
with existing data--CSUMC
Learning Technologists and IT
contacts for these units
Subject Librarians
 Goals:
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Add content to the repository
Preserve the digital assets of the
university
Facilitate easy deposit of the
materials
Provide centralized access to the
university’s research resources
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Center for
the Study of
Upper
Midwestern
Cultures
Photo
Gallery
Assist Self-Archiving Projects
 Partners:
 Departments and research centers—
Center for Limnology
 Faculty and staff
 Departmental Libraries—Center for
Limnology Library
 Goals:
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
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Support self-archiving projects on campus
Help libraries maintain their pre-print, post-print,
and reprint collections
Raise awareness of the Open Access
movement
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Integrate with Digital Publishing Projects

Partners:
 Digital publishing initiatives
 University Press
 Office of Scholarly
Communication and Publishing

Goals
 Assist in preserving and
providing access to digital and
print publications
 Encourage use of the repository
for digital assets created by the
university
 Integration of the repository
into the digital publishing
workflow
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu
Concluding Thoughts.....
 Collaboration comes in all shapes and sizes.
 Having limited resources breeds
collaboration.
 If you build it, there is no guarantee they will
come, but if you build it together they just
might hang around.
http://uwdc.library.wisc.edu