The development of institutional repositories in East Africa countries: A comparative analysis of Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda

This paper aims to examine the growth of IR in the East Africa region (Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda) from 2010-2020. This study adopted a content analysis methodology. Data for this study was extracted from OpenDOAR (Directory of Open Access Repository), ROAR (Registry of Open Access Repository) and repositories websites to identify the language used, subject covered, software used and types of content that are found in East African repositories. The findings of this study reveal that East Africa region had a total number of 66 repositories, which are registered in OpenDOAR. Kenya is a leading country in the region by having 42 repositories, followed by Tanzania with 14 repositories and Uganda have 10 repositories. The findings show that there is an increase number in the of repositories in the region from 4 in 2010 to 66 in 2020, however the growth is low compared to other parts of the world like Europe, Asia, and America. The study shows the need of librarians, researchers, stakeholders, and East Africa governments to come together to overcome the challenges that hinder the growth of repositories in the region. Mandate policies formulation, training, fund support, OA awareness and technical support are needed in overcoming those challenges. Keywords: Institutional Repository, Open Access, Content growth, Institutional Repository software, Items types, Institutional Repository language, and subject covered in repository, East Africa region.

An Effective Digital Safeguarding System in University Libraries: A Model Plan

The purpose of the study is to present a model plan for developing an effective digital maintenance system with the help of institutional repository software in university library premises. This work is an investigative study of digital maintenance activities for sustainable development of the digital publications and intellectual outputs of universities in Bangladesh. The researchers investigated the university and university website and found that only 11% university libraries were active in preserving their digital resources while 89% of university libraries were either in the dark or less reluctant to adopt the system. Researchers realized that due to lack of proper guidelines and an ideal model plan, most of the university libraries were far behind in adopting a repository system for safeguarding their intellectual outputs. Hence this study describes a model plan for the university libraries of Bangladesh to create a sustainable preservation system easily and effectively. The model plan in this study was based on observation and review of the literature in the concerned field. All university authorities can follow the mentioned model for sustainable maintenance of their intellectual digital assets.

Developed DICOM standard schema with DSpace

Purpose This paper aims to present a novel DSpace-based medical image repository system planned explicitly for storing and retrieving clinical images using digital imaging and communication in medicine (DICOM) metadata standards. DSpace institutional repository software is widely used in an academic environment for accessing and mainly storing text-related files. DICOM images are particular types of images embedded with much system-generated metadata and organised using DICOM metadata standards. Design/methodology/approach The present paper talks about institutional repository software (DSpace) in archiving DICOM images. In the current study, the authors have tried to integrate the DICOM metadata standard with DSpace, which was compatible with Dublin Core (DC) and open archives initiative – protocol for metadata harvesting (OAI-PMH). After combining the DICOM standard with DSpace and the repository tested with a sample of 5,000 images, the retrieval results using various DICOM tags was very satisfactory. This study paves for the use of open source software (OSS) in storing and retrieving medical images. Findings The author has provided the DSpace software to recognised DICOM (.dcm) files in the first stage. In the second stage, a patch was developed to identify the DICOM metadata standard in Dspace, which has inbuilt DC metadata standards. Finally, in the third stage, retrieval efficiency was tested with a 5,000 .dcm image using the DICOM tag and the results were very fruitful. Research limitations/implications A major limitation of this study was the size of the data (5,000 DICOM images) with which the authors have tested the system. The system scalability has to be tested on various fronts like on cloud and local servers with different configurations, for which a separate study has to be done. Practical implications Once this system is in place, DICOM users can stock, retrieve and access the image from the Web platform. Furthermore, this proposed repository will be the warehouse of various DICOM images with reasonable storage costs. Originality/value In addition to exploring the opportunities of free open source software (FOSS) implementation in medical science, this study includes issues related to the performance of an open-source repository for retrieving and preserving medical images. It created and developed Open Source DICOM Medical Image Library with DICOM metadata standard with the help of DSpace. Thus, the study will generate value for library professionals and medical professionals and FOSS vendors to understand the medical market in the context of FOSS.

Advance: A SAGE Preprints Community

Advance, a SAGE preprints community, from SAGE Publishing, is one of a growing number of Open Access repositories where researchers can post papers online for free prior to peer review and thereby speed the dissemination of research. Figshare, Open Access repository software from Digital Science, forms the infrastructure and workflow for Advance. Key features of Advance include an easy-to-navigate interface and simple search, Creative Commons-licensed manuscripts with version-controlled DOIs, support for multiple file formats, indexing in Google Scholar and CrossRef, and long-term access. Drawbacks include limited content, slight issues with web accessibility, and limited, non-standard advanced search options. Advance and other preprint services form one part of the ever-evolving scholarly communication landscape, which is growing in numbers and disciplines served.

Determining the factors influencing the level of awareness and usage of open source digital repository software by academic librarians in India

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the level of awareness and usage of open source digital repository software (DRS). The paper also studies the factors, which influence the level of awareness and usage of different open source DRS by academic librarians in India. Design/methodology/approach The study administered an online questionnaire to academic librarians in India to know their level of awareness and usage of open source DRS. The questionnaire aimed to gather the awareness and usage of open source DSR. In total, 374 complete responses were collected from academic librarians in India and the collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Moreover, Fishers’ exact test was used to identify whether factors i.e. qualification and participation in workshop/seminar influence the level of awareness and usage of open source DRS. Findings The results of the study reveal that the level of awareness and usage of open source DRS, namely, DSpace (Mean = 2.92, SD = 0.906) and Greenstone digital library software (GSDL) (Mean = 2.18, SD = 0.699) are high amongst the academic librarians in India. In total, 33.4%, 11.5% of the participants are using DSpace and GSDL, respectively, on regular basis. Fishers’ exact test shows that factor(s) i.e. qualifications and participation in workshop/seminar affect the level of awareness and usage of open source DRS. The results show that there exits strong relation between participation in workshop/seminar and awareness and usage of DSpace (Fishers’ exact test = 13.473, p < 0.05). Originality/value This paper is the new type of study exploring level of awareness and usage of open source DRS by academic librarians in India. It identifies the factors that affect the awareness and usage of open source DRS. It is the first study to analyze the statistical significance between Indian librarians’ participation in workshop/seminar and their level of awareness and usage of different open source DRS.

Building a Dataset Search for Institutions: Project Update

Most out-of-the-box institutional repository systems do not provide the workflows and metadata features required for research data. Consequently, many libraries now support two institutional repository systems—one for publications, and one for research data—even when there are nearly a thousand data repositories in the United States, many of which provide services and policies that ensure their trustworthiness and suitability for research data. Libraries are either increasing spending by purchasing data repository solutions from vendors, or replicating work by building, customizing, and managing individual instances of data repository software. This article gives an update on a potential solution to this issue: An in-progress prototype for an open source Dataset Search tool that promotes discovery and reuse of institutional research datasets through automatic metadata harvesting and search engine optimization. Once finished, the Dataset Search tool has the potential to support three key impacts: Increasing discovery, reuse, and citation of research data; reinforcing the idea that research data are a legitimate scholarly product; and promoting community-owned systems that require less resource expenditure.

Petabytes in Practice: Working with Collections as Data at Scale

The emerging transdiscipline of Computational Archival Science (CAS) links frameworks such as Brown Dog and repository software such as Digital Repository At Scale To Invite Computation (DRAS-TIC) to yield an understanding of working with digital collections at scale for cultural data. The DRAS-TIC and Brown Dog projects here serve as the basis for an expandable distributed storage/service architecture with on-demand, horizontally scalable integrated digital preservation and analysis services.

Conservation and Digital Access of Available Rare Collections of Central Himalaya Region: A Study of Kumaun University

The main objective of the study is to conserve and preserve manuscripts/rare books available at DSB Campus, Kumaun University, Nainital, Uttarakhand, India. Eventually, digitized them and upload in digital repository software at G.B. Pant Library. A survey method is applied and twenty four (24) questionnaires are distributed to the twenty four (24) departments of DSB Campus, Kumaun University. In the survey, researcher got the total 53 rare books and 24 manuscripts from Zoology, Physics, Forestry, Sanskrit, and Hindi Departments. The manuscripts/rare books are not available in remaining nineteen (19) departments of this campus. Preventive and curative work is being done only in twenty four (24) manuscripts of Sanskrit Department, due to the scarcity of funds. After that the images was captured through camera then deciphering the manuscripts through subject expert and making digital repository of these rare documents in Dspace software. The result revealed that Zoology Department contains 44 (23008 folios) rare books of general zoology, entomology, fish and fisheries, genetics, invertebrates and amphibiology. Physics Department contains 1 (470 folios) rare books of spectroscopy. Forestry Department contains 3 (1208 folios) rare books of silviculture. Hindi Department contains 3 (500 folios) rare books aalochanaye and kavitaye and Sanskrit Department contains 24 (297 folios) manuscripts. The conservation process enrich the rare documents and digitization makes them global accessible. The purpose of this study is same and we have tried to make these said documents accessible within the library premises and save the rich heritage culture of Central Himalayan Region of Uttarakhand, India.

Perbandingan Perangkat Lunak Repository Institusi : Studi Kasus pada Repository Institusi di Indonesia

The purpose of this research is to analyze the technical comparison on SLiMS (Senayan Library Management System) software with Eprints and DSpace, so it will be proved technically whether SLiMS (Senayan Library Management System) can meet the criteria and standards as institutional repository software or not? . The research methodology used is an experimental approach in which researchers conduct direct experiments of SLiMS, Eprints and DSpace software starting from the installation stage, data entry, IP public provision to perform comparative analysis of the technical features of the three software. The results show that the SLiMS software (Senayan Library Management System) can meet the criteria and standards as the institutional repository software, because SLiMS (Senayan Library Management System) features the main required of an institutional repository software that functions as an asset management system digital collecting, preserving, preserving and publishing or disseminating scientific work of academic research of a college.