ACRL 12th Annual Conference
Friday, April 8, 2005
Minneapolis, Minn.

Institutional repositories (IRs) are an important new way for libraries and consortia to partner with faculty and students in scholarly communication. Nearly 100 conference attendees participated in a workshop, organized with the Association of College & Research Libraries to learn about the key aspects of starting such a repository. The workshop's presentations and discussion were geared for smaller universities and colleges to illustrate the “how-to” aspects of creating and maintaining an IR while working within limited resources. Topics included ways to develop plans and policies for implementation, as well as campus marketing strategies to increase faculty participation. By attending you'll learn what to consider when choosing a service provider, whether to set up technical infrastructure internally, and how to work within a consortium to establish an IR.

Moderator: Lee Van Orsdel, Dean of Libraries, Eastern Kentucky University

Presenters:

• Institutional Repositories: Definitions and Commitments
  John Ober
  Director, Policy, Planning and Outreach, Office of Scholarly Communication
  California Digital Library
• Digital Commons: Starting an Institutional Repository at a Small University
  Chris Nolan
  Assistant University Librarian
  Trinity University
• Weighing your IR Options
  Susan Gibbons
  Digital Initiatives Librarian
  University of Rochester

Next, presenters covered specific IR software packages:

• Digital Commons@CDMT by ProQuest and bepress with Ann Zawistowski, Carleton College
• Digitool by Ex Libris with Susan Pyzynski, Brandeis University
• DSpace by MIT and HP with Martin Courtois, Kansas State University
• DSpace Resources handout [PDF]
• Open Repository by BioMed Central with Marie Martens, BioMed Central