Primary Research Group has published The International
Survey of
Institution al Digital Repositories (ISBN # 1-57440-090-8)
and
would like to share some of its research results. Just a
few of
the study's many findings are that:
The average institutional digital repository spent $78,802
(US)
in start up costs.
Close to 41% of survey participants purchased software to
develop
their digital repositories. US-based institutions were much
more
likely than others to purchase software for this purpose.
The average repository in the sample has been in existence
for
2.85 years, with a range of 'just newly started' to ten
years.
On average, a drop more than 12% of the content in the
repositories came from pre-existing repositories maintained
by
academic departments or some other institutional unit.
A sixth of the libraries in the sample used Digital Commons
software, and 28 % of US-based repositories used this
product.
14.81% of the institutions in the sample plan to purchase
new
repository software within the next two years.
Only 5.56% of the repositories in the sample use blogs to
publicize the repository while close to 41% use a paper
promotional brochure.
Those repositories in the sample that required less than 500
hours of labor per year had budgets of just less than $9,000
US.
The largest repositories, those requiring 3,600 hours or
more
annually, had budgets averaging $145,444.
5.21% of the overall labor required to run the digital
repositories in the sample came from academic departments
not
connected to the library.
The art, architecture and music category was considered a
heavy
contributor by 4.88% of the repositories in the sample, and
a
significant contributor by 9.76%. 41.47% considered art,
architecture or music to be modest contributors. Most
significant
and all heavy contributors from these fields were from the
USA.
Once again, the BA/MA granting colleges were more likely to
have
significant or heavy contributors in this subject area.
The mean number of journal articles held by the repositories
in
the sample was 772, with a median of 162.
4.88% of the journal articles in the repositories were
subject to
page view limits.
15.56% of the repositories in the sample were funded largely
through grants.
About half of the libraries in the sample are from the USA
but
the study presents data from 56 institutional digital
repositories from eleven countries, including the USA,
Canada,
Australia, Germany, South Africa, India, Turkey and other
countries. The 121-page study presents more than 300 tables
of
data and commentary and is based on data from higher
education
libraries and other institutions involved in institutional
digital repository development. The report covers costs,
budgets, software, personnel, open access policies,
marketing,
relations with faculty and other contributors of content,
and
many other issues relevant to those managing or designing an
institutional digital depository. Data is broken out by
geographic region, type of college or institution, and
scope of
the repository, defined by the number of man-hours per year
needed for operation. For more information visit
www.primaryresearch.com.
James Moses,
Research Director
Primary Research Group Inc.
www.primaryresearch.com
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