Introduction to institutional repositories

1. INSTITUTIONAL
REPOSITORIES
KWESI KOBEA YANKSON
kkyankson@ucc.edu.gh

2. OBJECTIVES
• What is an Institutional Repository (IR) ?
• Why set up an IR ?
• What are the benefits of having an IR ?
• How can they be set up?
• Hardware and Software

3. WHAT IS AN IR?
• A digital collection that preserves and provides access the
intellectual output of an institution.
• Supposed to support almost every relevant digital format
of media or document files.

4. WHAT IS AN IR cont’d
• An IR may comprise the following:
• Thesis
• Dissertations
• Research Journals and Articles
• Pre and Post Prints

5. WHY SET UP AN IR ?
• To provide open access to institutional research output by
self-archiving it;
• To create global visibility for an institution's scholarly
research;

6. WHY SET UP AN IR ?
• To collect content in a single location;
• To store and preserve other institutional digital assets,
including unpublished or otherwise easily lost ("grey")
literature (e.g., theses or technical reports).

7. BENEFITS OF SETTING UP AN IR
• Opening up outputs of the institution to a worldwide
audience;
• Maximizing the visibility and impact of these outputs as a
result;
• Showcasing the institution to interested constituencies –
prospective staff, prospective students and other
stakeholders;

8. BENEFITS OF SETTING UP AN IR
• Collecting and curating digital output;
• Managing and measuring research and teaching
activities;
• Providing a workspace for work-in-progress, and for
collaborative or large-scale projects;

9. BENEFITS OF SETTING UP AN IR
• Enabling and encouraging interdisciplinary approaches to
research;
• Facilitating the development and sharing of digital
teaching materials and aids, and
• Supporting student endeavors, providing access to
theses and dissertations and a location for the
development of e-portfolios.

10. SETTING UP AN IR - HARDWARE

11. SETTING UP AN IR - HARDWARE

12. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
• Minimum hardware requirements:
• 1.0 GHz single core processor
• 512 MB RAM (DDR,DDR2 or DDR3)
• 40 GB HDD
• Recommended hardware requirements:
• 1.6 GHz dual core to quad core processor
• 2 GB Memory (DDR2 or DDR3)
• 250 GB HDD

13. WHYA SERVER IS PREFERED TO A
HIGH – END PC
• Task optimisation
• PC for a good application and desktop experience
• Server for 24/7 data storage, processing, management and
sending.
• Hard Disk space
• More slots in server
• RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)

14. SETTING UP AN IR – SOFTWARE
• Various options available
• IR software option are usually Open Source
• Options Include:
• Dspace
• Fedora
• Eprints

15. THANK YOU