To celebrate Open Access Week 2012 Oct. 21-28 DuraSpace will post a new “For Your Repository Viewing Pleasure” each day (and beyond) to highlight the “splendid stuff in YOUR repository”.

The University of Maryland Libraries, a DuraSpace Silver Sponsor and long-time user of Fedora and DSpace, are continuing to add to digitize and add valuable collection material to their repository daily.

DRUM (Digital Repository at the University of Maryland) <http://drum.lib.umd.edu>, currently holds close to 13,000 digital objects, including all of the theses and dissertations produced by students at the University of Maryland since 2003.

Digital Collections <http://digital.lib.umd.edu> is home to the University’s digitized special collections, and includes a rich array of content, appealing to students, alumni, and scholars. 

Even when it’s not football season, take some time to view one of the over 700 University of Maryland football films dating from 1946-1989, recently digitized and made freely available via the University AlbUM digital collection <http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/1773>.  Or, if planning a road trip this summer, pick a state and browse the National Trust Library Historic Postcard Collection’s over-4,000 historic postcards for attraction ideas <http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/3711>. In the past year, we have digitized several hundred manuscripts to assist in research relating to the history of the Civil War and slavery in Maryland  <http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/1716>. Into espionage? Digital Collections is also an excellent place to read other people’s diaries, whether you’re interested in heartfelt confessions from a young Maryland widow in 1859 <http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/2613> or  a war diary detailing aspects of the attack on Pearl Harbor <http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/5910>.

If tempted to visit campus, the University of Maryland Libraries’ Digital Collections contain a number of resources that are restricted to campus use due to licensing restrictions.  The collections include over 70 digital videos documenting the work of Jim Henson <http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/419>, over 800 digital educational films <http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/420>;, and a growing collection of digitized Japanese children’s books from the post-WWII years, 1946-1949 <http://hdl.handle.net/1903.1/3301>.

The University of Maryland Libraries have been actively adding content to their Fedora repository since 2007, and will continue to do so.  The treasures located there are used for fun, for research, and for educational purposes, and we hope, for reasons that we have not even imagined.

Thanks to Jennie Levine Knies, Manager, Digital Stewardship, McKeldin Library, University of Maryland, for submitting this information.

Please continue to send descriptions of the “Splendid Stuff” that can be found in YOUR Open Access repository. DuraSpace will highlight availability throughout year. Please contact Carol Minton Morris cmmorris@duraspace.org for more information.

To celebrate Open Access Week 2012 Oct. 21-28 DuraSpace will post a new “For Your Repository Viewing Pleasure” each day (and beyond) to highlight the “splendid stuff in YOUR repository”.

Most of the items collected in the Smithsonian Digital Repository, a component of Smithsonian Research Online managed by the SI Libraries, are written by and for scholars. These publications can be quite technical, dense and specific to a particular field and its experts. However there is one collection of digital material that is both scholarly in nature but also easily read and understood by non-experts. The monthly, Letter from the Desk of David Challinor was produced between 1989 and 2008 and includes over 200 well-written, interesting pieces on a variety of topics such as forestry, evolution, animal behavior, anthropology and the history of natural science. What’s best is that these 2-3 page essays, although authoritative, are written at a level which can be understood by most high school students.

Dr. David Challinor was a former assistant secretary of the Smithsonian but spent his later years at the National Zoological Park where among other things, he wrote his monthly Letter. It was distributed in print to a variety of people, mostly friends and associates of the Institution. Later in his life he distributed the Letter electronically via email to the same group. It is interesting to note that he continued to write until just before he passed away in March 2008.

You can search the full text of Dr. Challinor’s letters here: http://si-pddr.si.edu/dspace/handle/10088/1074.

This information was contributed by Alvin Hutchinson, Scholarly Communication and IT Services Librarian at Smithsonian Libraries, from a blog post he wrote in 2009.

Please continue to send descriptions of the “Splendid Stuff” that can be found in YOUR Open Access repository. DuraSpace will highlight availability in the “For Your Repository Viewing Pleasure” series this week and throughout year. Please contact Carol Minton Morris cmmorris@duraspace.org for more information.

To celebrate Open Access Week 2012 Oct. 21-28 DuraSpace will post a new “For Your Repository Viewing Pleasure” each day (and beyond) to highlight the “splendid stuff in YOUR repository”.

Like many great academic research libraries Columbia University Libraries feature remarkable resources–and lots of them: “The library’s collection would stretch 174 miles end-to-end, and is growing at a pace of 140,000 items per annum.”[1].

The Academic Commons (http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/) is Columbia University’s Open Access digital repository developed using the Fedora repository platform to help make research results and resources widely available.

Visitors will find literature series including the Columbia University Computer Science Technical Reports and the Columbia University Economics Discussion Papers.

Robert Hilliker, Digital Repository Manager, points out that there are also, “Individual items that stand out from the pack, like a whitepaper related to the “Whole Brain Activity Map” project, which aims to merge Nanoscience and Neuroscience to provide a detailed, real-time understanding of human brain function. This item was tweeted by Tim O’Reilly in early August and made the rounds of the Web: http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/item/ac:147966.”

A technical report about the “Failure of Online Social Network Privacy Settings” on which the new FCC Chief Technology Officer, Professor Steven Bellovin, was a co-author, recently informed a New York Times Magazine article on Facebook privacy: http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/catalog/ac:135406.

The Academic Commons also hosts a growing collection of video of lectures and conference presentations filmed at Columbia that include NEH Summer Institutes and TEDx conferences.

A large collection of research on the prevention and treatment of AIDS/HIV includes notable studies by Drs. Salim and Quarraisha Abdool Karim of the Mailman School of Public Health and by members of the Social Intervention Group and the Global Health Research Center for Central Asia in the School of Social Work.

Please continue to send descriptions of the “Splendid Stuff” that can be found in YOUR Open Access repository. DuraSpace will highlight availability in the “For Your Repository Viewing Pleasure” series this week and throughout year. Please contact Carol Minton Morris cmmorris@duraspace.org for more information.

Digitization of fragile film and video resources is the first step towards making sure they are preserved into the future. Yale University’s department of Manuscripts and Archives published an example of a video from The Fortunoff Video Archive Holocaust Testimonies, a historic collection of over 4,400 videotaped interviews with witnesses and survivors of the Holocaust, to demonstrate how important it is not only to digitize video resources, but to do it as soon as possible.

“Preservation Matters” on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MzzwnYJC4k

In a January 2012 interview with Variety (1) Martin Scorsese said, “We need to remember that the loss of over 75% of silent cinema to deterioration isn’t just a matter of rhetoric or propaganda – that’s for real. We need to remember that films are being lost all the time, and that we only find out that they’re lost after the fact: They don’t explode, they just quietly deteriorate. We need to remember, as I said before, that the work is constant and not at all glamorous. For every success story like the discovery and restoration of the John Ford silent picture “Upstream,” there are thousands of other pictures that need to be located, or properly restored, or preserved, or all of the above. In short, we need to remember, period. And we need to act, without waiting for someone else to do it.

Ensuring that digital objects are preserved after they are digitized is another part of the preservation equation. Because digital film and video objects are big they require large storage facilities on servers or in the cloud. Additionally different types media formats often require access to multiple viewing applications. While digital film and video facsimiles are more stable than film or videotape, they are still fragile. Bit rot and lack of preservation metadata can cause deterioration and loss of access and meaning over time.

Mike Pogorzelski, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Head of Preservation discussed the balance between preserving film and video by digitizing and active digital maintanance strategies in a 2010 interview (2):  “The first digital intermediaries (for film) were primarily used in Europe in the 90s. Those files, made in the mid 90s, are completely unreadable, because the vendors went out of business, or they were using some sort of proprietary file format.  A custom directory system that informs the operating systems how the files or data are arranged, can’t be used without doing a lot of archeology in a sense to try to figure out what those files mean.  In the meantime, the 35mm recorded negative is now the defacto original because the digital data is, in effect, unusable.”

ENABLING ACTIVE, LONG-TERM DIGITAL STORAGE

Preservation technologies such as DuraCloud actively maintain the bit integrity of film and video files (or any type of digital content) stored in the cloud. DuraCloud’s health checking services verify all content stored in DuraCloud, and generate comparative reports. The service verifies the integrity of an entire space by collecting the content checksum values for each item from the underlying storage provider, streaming through each item while recalculating their checksums, and comparing the two listings. The service then generates a report for the space that compares both the stored checksum values from the storage provider as well as the computed checksum values. This report is available through the DuraCloud web interface or as a download providing ongoing graphical reports of the health of content.

ABOUT THE YALE FORTUNOFF VIDEO ARCHIVE

The archive is currently being digitized to preserve the testimonies. This short film by Alexander Dominitz contributes to our understanding why preserving these tapes is so critically important. More information about the archive may be found at: http://www.library.yale.edu/testimonies/

—

1. Grosz, C. Scorsese talks preservation: Director still passionate about protecting film history. Variety, Jan. 1, 2012. http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118048017/

2. Galas, M. Part One: Film Preservation In The Advent of Digital Media. 411 News, Issue #78. http://www.resource411.com/411Update/Issue/Articles/Story.cfm?StoryID=1071

To celebrate Open Access Week 2012 Oct. 21-28 DuraSpace will post a new “For Your Repository Viewing Pleasure” each day (and beyond) to highlight the “splendid stuff in YOUR repository”.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed an open access repository “CDC Stacks” at http://stacks.cdc.gov using the Fedora repository platform hosted in the cloud.

Issues from the first 30 years of the weekly MMWR (CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report) are available to the public online as one of the collections in CDC Stacks. As with other documents in CDC Stacks, MMWR issues are in portable document format (PDF), and the text can be searched electronically. This rich MMWR collection available at http://stacks.cdc.gov/mmwr provides a history of public health issues, awareness and statistical analyses over three decades.

Browse collections in CDC Stacks here: http://stacks.cdc.gov/browse/collections/. A visit to the NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) collection (http://stacks.cdc.gov/cbrowse/?parentId=cdc:8278&pid=cdc:8278&type=1&facetRange=) provides access to Office Mine Safety and Health Research (OMSHR) historical documents from the early 1940s.

Please continue to send descriptions of the “Splendid Stuff” that can be found in YOUR Open Access repository. DuraSpace will highlight availability in the “For Your Repository Viewing Pleasure” series in the coming year. Please contact Carol Minton Morris <cmmorris@duraspace.org> for more information.

PART FIVE: Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe This is the fifth of a five-part series that looks at Open Access repository development in twelve African countries in celebration of Open Access Week Oct. 24-30, 2011. The first part (Botswana, Ethiopia and Ghana) may be found here: http://duraspace.org/dspace-africa-growing-openaccess-knowledge-and-culture. Parts two, three and four (Kenya, Malawi; Mozambique, Senegal; Sudan, South Africa) may be found here:
http://duraspace.org/dspace-openaccess-repository-development-africa-kenya-malawi
http://duraspace.org/dspace-openaccess-repository-development-africa-mozambique-senegal-0
http://duraspace.org/dspace-openaccess-repository-development-africa-sudan-south-africa

The series is co-authored by Iryna Kuchma, Open Access Programme manager, EIFL (http://www.eifl.net/) and EIFL-OA country coordinators: Netsanet Animut, Addis Ababa University and Chair of the Consortium of Ethiopian Academic and Research Libraries, Charles Banda, Copperbelt University, Zambia, Aissa Mitha Issak, Universidade Pedagógica, Mozambique, Gloria Kadyamatimba, Chinhoyi University of Technology Library, Zimbabwe, Richard B. Lamptey, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, Fredrick Kiwuwa Lugya, Makerere University Library, Uganda, Reason Baathuli Nfila, University of Botswana Library, Rosemary Otando, University Nairobi, Kenya, Kondwani Wella, Kamuzu College of Nursing, University of Malawi and Carol Minton Morris, DuraSpace.

Uganda

African research output in the mainstream of world knowledge

Makerere University Library became the first library in Uganda to set up an institutional repository called Uganda Scholarly Digital Library (USDL, http://dspace.mak.ac.ug/). Launched as a science repository but later changed to cover other disciplines, USDL has a total of 1,600 full text articles, reports, posters, and other scholarly materials.
 
Through Open Access organizations and groups like Consortium of Uganda University Libraries (David Bukenya, dbukenya@ucu.ac.ug), EIFL-OA (Fredrick Kiwuwa Lugya, flugya@mulib.mak.ac.ug) and support from partners like INASP, EIFL, Sida Sarec, and Carnegie Corporation of New York, academic and research libraries in Uganda have started to show interest in having  institutional repositories.
 
The Open Access initiative has been further strengthened through partnerships such as the Irish African Partnership for Research Capacity Building and the Database of African Theses and Dissertations (DATAD). Through its Open Access repository, the Irish African Partnership for Research Capacity Building (IAP) brings together universities of Ireland, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda in a unique, high-level partnership to develop a coordinated approach to research capacity building in order to make an effective contribution to the reduction of poverty. With the support of the Association of African Universities (AAU) DATAD aims at improving the management and access to African scholarly work (theses and dissertations) thus putting Africa’s research output onto the mainstream of world knowledge.

Zambia

Building capacity for Open Access repositories

Zambia Library Consortium (ZALICO) promotes Open Access in the country and builds capacities among its member organizations to set up and maintain Open Access repositories.
 
In 2011 Zambia Library Consortium (ZALICO) has organized a national Open Access Repositories workshop funded by INASP to explore DSpace software for repository building. Participants from 12 institutions attended, including: National Assembly, National Institute for Industrial Scientific Research, National Technology Business Centre, The National Science and Technology Council, National Institute for Public Administration (NIPA), University of Zambia, Bank of Zambia, Zambia Environmental Management Agency (ZEMA) formerly Environmental Council of Zambia (ECZ), Zambia Agricultural Research Institute, Copperbelt University, Mulungushi University and Tropical Diseases Research Center (TDRC).
 
Open Access repositories are being developed by the following institutions: Copperbelt University Library, National Science Technology Center (NSTC), The University of Zambia and National Assembly of Zambia.

Zimbabwe

University libraries lead the way to Open Access repository development

In Zimbabwe OA initiatives have to a large extent been driven by university libraries through the Zimbabwe University Libraries Consortium (ZULC) with support from the International Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) and EIFL.
 
All universities with the exception of the Catholic University, Great Zimbabwe University, Lupane State University and Solusi University have IRs at various stages of development. The major content of these repositories are journal articles, published conference papers, projects and dissertations, digital collections and past examination papers whose full texts are accessible on the universities’ local Intranets. Most collections are mounted on the Greenstone and/or DSpace platform. The University of Zimbabwe also provides book chapters, working papers, research reports and seminar papers. The repository is listed in the Directory of OA Repositories (OpenDOAR) and it is accessible on the internet.
 
University of Zimbabwe( UZ): The institutional repository (http://ir.uz.ac.zw/jspui/) was established in 2005 using DSpace software. It contains past exam papers, conference papers, staff publications, DATAD: abstracts of theses and dissertations, EDT–db: full text of electronic theses, book chapters, working papers, research reports and seminar papers. It is available through the internet. The UZ has the most successful institutional repository. It is well populated and it is accessible on the web. This is due to a number of factors. The UZ is the mother of all universities with a well documented research culture which attracts funding from donor organizations. It has a publishing house with a decent output. The UZ library personnel were the first to receive institutional repository training which they are now cascading to other libraries. It has a bandwidth of 27mb which is the envy of other universities. Its long history and location in the capital city makes it a favourite destination for the best librarians. The above factors have created a conducive environment for the implementation of a successful institutional repository at the UZ.
 
The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) library with financial support from EIFL has embarked on a campus wide Open Access (OA) Advocacy Campaign which will target the UZ management and administrative personnel and Deans of Faculties. The ultimate purpose is to advocate for the adoption of a campus wide OA policy. During OA week a one day workshop will be held for 20 UZ management staff (Executives i.e. Vice Chancellor, Pro Vice Chancellor, Registrar, and Deans of Faculties) in an endeavour to achieve management buy in on the concept of OA, with the hope of advocating for OA policy formulation and implementation in the near future. A series of workshops and presentations targeting teaching staff (chairpersons of departments and lectures) in all 10 faculties will be held by faculty librarians with the sole purpose of marketing and publicising of both the concept of OA and OA resources relevant to individual faculties. An advocacy video will be documented which will contain testimonies of local academics who have so far benefited from exposure on IR platform and other success stories. Overall the library is looking forward to the adoption of a University OA Policy, which will enable access to knowledge in support of teaching, learning and research at the UZ, and as such this prospective advocacy campaign will be a conducive platform to this vision.
 
Only the UZ’s IR is listed in the OpenDOAR. The rest are only available on Intranets for a number of reasons. Firstly, institutions are reluctant to mount their IRs on the Internet due to very limited bandwidth which limits connectivity. Secondly institutions are afraid of infringing intellectual property rights on some of the works in their IRs. At some institutions submission to the IR is done through the Research and Scholarship Committee to ensure compliance with intellectual property rights and to enhance submission.
 
Zimbabwean institutions are at an advanced stage of developing IRs. Most institutions have IRs running on their Intranets. Uploading IRs onto the net is only a matter of time for most institutions. The major constraint is fear of copyright infringement and lack of IR policies. Further training in these aspects would ensure expedited uploading onto the web and availability of Zimbabwean research to a wider global audience.

PART FOUR: Sudan, South Africa This is the fourth of a five-part series that looks at Open Access repository development in twelve African countries in celebration of Open Access Week Oct. 24-30, 2011. The first part (Botswana, Ethiopia and Ghana) may be found here: http://duraspace.org/dspace-africa-growing-openaccess-knowledge-and-culture. Parts two and three (Kenya, Malawi; Mozambique, Senegal) may be found here: http://duraspace.org/dspace-openaccess-repository-development-africa-kenya-malawi; http://duraspace.org/dspace-openaccess-repository-development-africa-mozambique-senegal-0.

The series is co-authored by Iryna Kuchma, Open Access Programme manager, EIFL (http://www.eifl.net/) and EIFL-OA country coordinators: Netsanet Animut, Addis Ababa University and Chair of the Consortium of Ethiopian Academic and Research Libraries, Charles Banda, Copperbelt University, Zambia, Aissa Mitha Issak, Universidade Pedagógica, Mozambique, Gloria Kadyamatimba, Chinhoyi University of Technology Library, Zimbabwe, Richard B. Lamptey, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, Fredrick Kiwuwa Lugya, Makerere University Library, Uganda, Reason Baathuli Nfila, University of Botswana Library, Rosemary Otando, University Nairobi, Kenya, Kondwani Wella, Kamuzu College of Nursing, University of Malawi and Carol Minton Morris, DuraSpace.

Sudan

Open Access to Arabic launguage resources

The first Sudanese Institutional Repository was released on October 10, 2011 and is now available at http://oascir.uofk.edu/. DSpace@ScienceUofKrepository is the result of the EIFL-funded OASCIR (Open Access Scientific Institutional Repository) project  which included carrying out an Open Access awareness-raising campaign at the Faculty of Science, University of Khartoum and setting up an institutional repository.
 
DSpace@ScienceUofK goes live with more than175 records in its database. Most of them areavailable in full-text. In the coming weeks there will be an effort to increase the  content in the repository. Additional functionality–such as an Arabic interface–is still being developed for the repository and will be available shortly.
 
(From DSpace@ScienceUofK is now LIVE OASCIR project blog http://uofkoascir.blogspot.com/2011/10/dspacescienceuofk-is-now-live.html)
 

South Africa

Open Access advocacy in service to  to shared knowledge

South Africa is a leading African country in terms of Open Access (OA) policies on the governmental level and grass-roots OA initiatives in universities and research organizations.
 
All 11 traditional universities (or at least their departments), two universities of technology (Cape Peninsula University of Technology and Durban University of Technology), three comprehensive universities (University of Johannesburg, University of South Africa and University of Zululand) and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) have set up OA repositories.
 
University of Pretoria and University of Johannesburg have adopted OA policies (mandates) to ensure that results of researches funded by institutions are made freely available.
 
University of Pretoria and Stellenbosch University host the largest IR collections in the country: UPSpace (http://repository.up.ac.za/, 14,108 records) + University of Pretoria Electronic Theses and Dissertations (http://upetd.up.ac.za/UPeTD.htm, 6,592 records); and SUNScholar Repository (http://scholar.sun.ac.za/, 15,053 records).
 
Stellenbosch University has also joined this international cohort of open access advocates and has signed the Berlin Declaration confirming its commitment to openly sharing its research output. During the past year the University has made considerable progress in terms of opening access to information. The University is actively preserving its research output (research articles, theses, dissertations, etc.) via its institutional repository, SUNScholar. The University’s commitment has grown in leaps and bounds culminating in ‘publishing’ journal titles in open access forums using open source software. 
 
Stellenbosch University has also set up an IR wiki  http://wiki.lib.sun.ac.za/index.php/SUNScholar/IR – a useful resource of best practice recommendations for repository managers.
 
“IRSpace” is an informal community of those who are interested in advancing the case of OA and IRs in South Africa and Africa. Communication channel: Irtalk discussion list   http://lists.lib.sun.ac.za/mailman/listinfo/irtalk and DuraSpace – The South African Dspace/DuraSpace Workgroup discussion list http://lists.lib.sun.ac.za/mailman/listinfo/duraspace.
 
IRSpace http://www.google.com/cse/home?cx=013518019117943970829%3Atlw8-sayn_q – Search South African & African research repositories: is an IR harvester for African research institutions.

PART THREE: Mozambique, Senegal This is the third of a five-part series that looks at Open Access repository development in twelve African countries in celebration of Open Access Week Oct. 24-30, 2011. The first part (Botswana, Ethiopia and Ghana) may be found here: http://duraspace.org/dspace-africa-growing-openaccess-knowledge-and-culture. Part two (Kenya, Malawi) may be found here http://duraspace.org/dspace-openaccess-repository-development-africa-kenya-malawi.

The series is co-authored by Iryna Kuchma, Open Access Programme manager, EIFL (http://www.eifl.net/) and EIFL-OA country coordinators: Netsanet Animut, Addis Ababa University and Chair of the Consortium of Ethiopian Academic and Research Libraries, Charles Banda, Copperbelt University, Zambia, Aissa Mitha Issak, Universidade Pedagógica, Mozambique, Gloria Kadyamatimba, Chinhoyi University of Technology Library, Zimbabwe, Richard B. Lamptey, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, Fredrick Kiwuwa Lugya, Makerere University Library, Uganda, Reason Baathuli Nfila, University of Botswana Library, Rosemary Otando, University Nairobi, Kenya, Kondwani Wella, Kamuzu College of Nursing, University of Malawi and Carol Minton Morris, DuraSpace.

Mozambique

Contributing to sharing global knowledge

SABER (http://www.saber.ac.mz/) – the Mozambican Open Access repository (http://uofkoascir.blogspot.com/2011/03/saber-multi-institutional-repository-in.html) was launched in November 2009 by Centro de Formação Jurídica e Judiciária, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane and Universidade Politécnica. Within a year of operations, three more higher education institutions joined the project, namely, Instituto Superior de Ciências e Tecnologia de Moçambique, Universidade Pedagógica and Universidade São Tomás de Moçambique.
 
SABER has been supported by the Ministry of Education and Culture under the Fund for Improvement of Quality and Innovation – QIF and Sida / SAREC.
 
SABER currently holds 2,519 items including theses and dissertations, journal articles and conference papers from Mozambican researchers. More visibility, coupled with the knowledge that the material can be read worldwide, has led to a greater awareness about the quality of work presented by researchers. SABER provides assurance for long term preservation, especially for gray literature, much of which currently disappears from libraries and university departments. Most importantly, SABER contributes to a desire by Mozambicans to move away from being only a consumer of information and to also be able to contribute to global knowledge sharing. Other factors of success include identifying repository champions to help advocate to university management and faculty.
 
Technical support and advice is generously provided by the University of Minho in Portugal.
 
See a case study SABER: a unique and innovative FOSS Open Access Repository: http://www.eifl.net/saber-unique-and-innovative-foss-openaccess-repos

Senegal

Open Access to cultural heritage collections and audiovisual material

Biens Culturels Africains (http://bca.ucad.sn/jspui/) is an Open Access institutional repository of Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire Cheikh Anta Diop de l’Université. Current publications (research articles, journals, books and manuscripts), cultural heritage collections and audiovisual material are publicly available. The project is implemented in partnership with l’Université de Toulouse II-Le Mirail and with financial support from Fonds francophone des inforoutes and le Ministère français des affaires étrangères.

PART TWO: Kenya, Malawi This is the second of a five-part series that looks at Open Access repository development in twelve African countries in celebration of Open Access Week Oct. 24-30, 2011. The first part (Botswana, Ethiopia and Ghana) may be found here: http://duraspace.org/dspace-africa-growing-openaccess-knowledge-and-culture

The series is co-authored by Iryna Kuchma, Open Access Programme manager, EIFL (http://www.eifl.net/) and EIFL-OA country coordinators: Netsanet Animut, Addis Ababa University and Chair of the Consortium of Ethiopian Academic and Research Libraries, Charles Banda, Copperbelt University, Zambia, Aissa Mitha Issak, Universidade Pedagógica, Mozambique, Gloria Kadyamatimba, Chinhoyi University of Technology Library, Zimbabwe, Richard B. Lamptey, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, Fredrick Kiwuwa Lugya, Makerere University Library, Uganda, Reason Baathuli Nfila, University of Botswana Library, Rosemary Otando, University Nairobi, Kenya, Kondwani Wella, Kamuzu College of Nursing, University of Malawi and Carol Minton Morris, DuraSpace.

Kenya

Laying the groundwork for more Open Access institutional repositories

In 2009, INASP funded two Kenya Libraries and Information Services Consortium (KLISC) members to attend an OA workshop in South Africa, and later a one week attachment at the University of Pretoria, after which they began rigorous training in OA institutional repositories (IRs) to sensitize KLISC members. OA workshops and conferences have been conducted with KLISC members through the support of EIFL and INASP. About 35 of 75 KLISC member institutions participated in these workshops and conferences. About 30 of those who participated established, or are in the process of establishing institutional repositories.
 
KLISC recently conducted a study to assess the extent to which institutional repositories (IR) have been established to capture local content among member institutions, the role of KLISC in supporting the establishment, and the challenges and intervention measures required. Of the 35 questionnaires distributed to respondents, 26 returned completed questionnaires, an impressive response rate of 74%, an indication of significant interest in developing IRs. The results indicated that 17 (65%) institutions have embraced or are in the process of establishing IRs in their institutions, while 9 (35%) have not established IRs. The respondents were asked to indicate the kind of content deposited in their IRs and response shows high preference for theses and dissertations. 
 
The respondents were asked to indicate the type of software used, and 15 (57%) indicted that they were using DSpace, followed closely by Greenstone with 10 (38%), and others with 1 (5%). Having conducted several workshops in DSpace and Greenstone in 2009 and 2010, it was not surprising that these two types of software were preferred. This is an indication that training is an important factor in influencing choice.
 
Respondents were asked to indicate their progress in the implementation of IR. It was found out that majority of the respondents are in the process of customization and submission and only 5 (19%) are on intranet and 3 (10%) are live on the web, hence there is a need for technical support to complete the installation process.
 
Open Access DSpace repositories at Strathmore University (http://www.digital.library.strathmore.edu/xmlui/) support the University OA policy adopted in February 2011. The Strathmore University Harvard-style OA mandate shows commitment towards disseminating the fruits of University research and scholarship as widely as possible. Each University member grants to the Vice Chancellor and Academic council of Strathmore University permission to make available his/her scholarly articles and to exercise the copyright in those articles. Each Faculty member will provide an e-copy of the final version of the article at no charge to the appropriate representative of the Vice Chancellor’s Office in an appropriate format (such as PDF) specified by the Vice Chancellor’s Office no later than the date of its publication. The Vice Chancellor’s Office may make the article available to the public in an OA IR.
 
International Research Institute (ILRI) aims to make as many of research products as possible open through OA IR Mahider. In December 2010 the Management Committee adopted a proposal for the institute to use an ‘open’ license for its published outputs. The aim is to encourage maximum uptake and re-use of ILRI’s research. Under this proposal, ILRI retains copyright over each output. It also explicitly encourages wide non-commercial re-use of each output, subject to full attribution of ILRI and the author(s), and use of an equally open license for any derivative output (Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License). By default, this license applies to the following categories of outputs: ILRI published reports and publications (print and digital); ILRI photographs; ILRI Powerpoints; ILRI posters and ILRI video and films. (From ILRI news http://infoilri.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/ilri-adopts-creative-commons-license-for-its-research-outputs/)
 
Institutions with OA IRs still on development stage include: JKUAT (policy issues), Egerton University (policy issues), St. Paul university (customization, policy issues), University of Eastern Africa, Baraton (customization) and Daystar (policy issues).
 
Institutions that have implemented IRs but are still on Local Area Network are as follows: University of Nairobi (108 items); Kenyatta University (Past Papers); College of Insurance, KMFRI (Advanced stage – 400 items), Kabarak (Advanced stage – 3000 items), Agha Khan University (80 Items), Marist International (55 items), Moi University (Advanced stage), KCA (103 items), ICIPE (21 Items), Inoorero, KEMRI and KEMU.
 
The respondents were asked to give their opinion on how much the high level management in their institution understands the importance of IR. Majority of 11 (42%) felt the management know little, 7 (27%) indicted fairly well. Of the remaining, 2 (8%) declined to answer, and 6 (23%) indicated very well. Among those indicated very well, 4 (70%) were from private universities and research institutions. The result generally indicates that top-level management understands little about the importance of IR.
 
The results confirmed that there is a lot KLISC can do to support the IR projects. This may involve sharing costs in purchasing relevant equipment for member institutions. There is also need to facilitate sensitization for authors, researchers and the high level management of institutions.
 
This overview was contributed by Rosemary M. Otando. ETD2011: “Building Institutional Repositories in KLISC Member Institutions in Kenya: Current Status and Emerging challenges”
 

Malawi

Towards a a national digital repository of research

Open Access activities are carried out by Malawi Library and Information Consortium (MALICO).
 
Upcoming Open Access institutional repositories: Chancellor College, Malawi College of Medicine, Kamuzu College of Nursing. In April 2011 EIFL funded an ongoing institutional Awareness Campaign for Kamuzu College of Nursing Library, University of Malawi, Research Repository implemented by Kamuzu College of Nursing Library, University of Malawi, in partnership with the National Commission for Science and Technology (NCST). Kamuzu College of Nursing Library is building an open access repository for research in nursing, midwifery and reproductive health.
 
Through its Mobilising Knowledge for Development (MK4D) Programme, the Institute of Development Studies (IDS, UK) collaborates with the National Library Service of Malawi (NLS) to support the establishment of a National Digital Repository of Research for Malawi. The repository will be housed at NLS and jointly managed by NLS, the Malawi Library and Information Consortium (MALICO) and the National Commission of Science and Technology (NCST). Support for training workshops will be provided separately by the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP). The main aim of the project is to set up a national digital repository of research from Malawi, collecting research outputs from Malawian institutions and building their capacities in global knowledge sharing. It is envisaged that the increased accessibility and visibility of Malawian research outputs will increase their impact on policy and bring more transparency to research institutions. A second aim is to link to, learn from and utilize the related work, ensuring close collaboration, identifying opportunities for further collaboration and avoiding duplication of effort.
 

PART ONE: Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana This is the first of a five-part series that looks at Open Access repository development in twelve African countries in celebration of Open Access Week Oct. 24-30, 2011

With thanks to co-authors Iryna Kuchma, Open Access Programme manager, EIFL (http://www.eifl.net/) and EIFL-OA country coordinators: Netsanet Animut, Addis Ababa University and Chair of the Consortium of Ethiopian Academic and Research Libraries, Charles Banda, Copperbelt University, Zambia, Aissa Mitha Issak, Universidade Pedagógica, Mozambique, Gloria Kadyamatimba, Chinhoyi University of Technology Library, Zimbabwe, Richard B. Lamptey, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, Fredrick Kiwuwa Lugya, Makerere University Library, Uganda, Reason Baathuli Nfila, University of Botswana Library, Rosemary Otando, University Nairobi, Kenya, Kondwani Wella, Kamuzu College of Nursing, University of Malawi.
 
Ithaca, NY In Africa and in many countries around the world the need to manage, preserve and create open access to formerly “locked down” knowledge and culture has become apparent. Developing countries have recognized the need to utilize knowledge resources in order to leverage economic development, research and educational opportunities. One example is Kenya Open Data (http://opendata.go.ke/) which creates greater government transparency by providing open access to original data.

“This site makes public government data accessible to the people of Kenya. High quality national census data, government expenditure, parliamentary proceedings and public service locations are just a taste of what’s to come. There’s something for everyone: maps to start exploring, interactive charts and tables for a deeper understanding, and raw data for technical users to build their own apps and analyses. Our information is a national asset, and it’s time it was shared: this data is key to improving transparency; unlocking social and economic value; and building Government 2.0 in Kenya.”

 
DSpace has been a player in creating open access to information since it was launched in 2002. This open source, easy-to-use repository application has been instrumental in providing universities and institutions all over the world with a tool for getting resources online and making them accessible. In 2004 there were 9 DSpace instances in Africa. Due the work of DSpace Ambassadors and other community outreach efforts that number has increased to 46 today. For the next five days DuraSpace will offer a glimpse into what’s “in” some DSpace repositories in Africa on each day in celebration of Open Access Week 2011 (http://www.openaccessweek.org/).

Botswana

Open Access to institutional research output

 
The University of Botswana Digital Repository Policy referred to as University of Botswana Research, Innovation and Scholarship Archive (UBRISA, http://ubrisa.ub.bw/)
is in alignment with the research policies and the Research Strategy of the University of Botswana. UBRISA is used to capture, store, preserve and provide open access to institutional research output. It aims to “promote and encourage the dissemination of research findings and increase the visibility of the University of Botswana nationally and internationally in scholarship and knowledge creation, application and exchange” (Digital Repository Policy). The content of the repository covers various forms that include: peer reviewed published articles, pre-prints, monographs, electronic books, book chapters, vetted conference papers, theses and dissertations, other research outputs that are not necessarily meant for publication such as computer programs and artistic works. The policy encourages self archiving by university staff, students and their collaborating researchers.
 
An example of a peer reviewed published article submission regarding research into cultural trends and preferences can be found in the “Nollywood films and the cultural imperialism hypothesis” article by E. Akpabio and K.  Mustapha-Lambe. The term “Nollywood” refers to digital video productions of Nigeria. The authors reached the conclusion, “…it is apparent that these (American) and other foreign productions no longer have a captive market in Nigeria.”
 
Further, the University of Botswana has developed guidelines on implementation of e-theses to increase the visibility of its research essays, theses, dissertations for masters’ and PhD degree programs through UBRISA. The guidelines cover issues of intellectual property produced by a student during studies at UB, OA initiative, and roles and responsibilities for submission of the electronic theses/ dissertation, as well as instructions on submission.
 
The Office of Research and Development (ORD) has implemented a Research Management System (RMS) as a tool to electronically monitor research from proposal to submission of completed papers. The workflows enable easy monitoring of every stage of research including the Library being able to identify completed research for collecting and providing access through the digital repository.
 
University of Botswana Research, Innovation and Scholarship Archive (UBRISA) has been launched last year as a joint project of Office of Research and Development and University Library.
 
On August 11, 2011, UBRISA shared their experiences with policy environment, workflows, and ran a training session on using DSpace software for Botswana Library Consortium (BLC) members at the workshop on Open Access platforms/software and repositories at the University of Botswana. DSpace software has been chosen as a national repository solution and BLC FOSS team has been tasked with overseeing the creation of institutional repositories in BLC member country institutions using DSpace FOSS. (More details about the workshop are here: http://www.eifl.net/news/workshop-oa-repositories-botswana).
 
The Open Access (OA) Sub-Committee of the BLC is organizing a series of events during OA Week from 24-30 October 2011: http://www.eifl.net/events/openaccess-week-2011-botswana.

Ethiopia

Theses and dissertations on the web

 
Currently there are three Open Access DSpace repositories: Addis Ababa University (http://etd.aau.edu.et/dspace/); International Livestock Research Institute (http://www.ilri.org/), and; the Economic Commission for Africa (http://www.uneca.org/).
 
As a pioneer institution in opening access to various information resources and knowledge in the nation, the Addis Ababa University Libraries has been advocating for its institutional repository and Open Access throughout the country since 2004. As part of this effort, the library has made available over 2,500 theses and dissertations submitted to the university to everyone on the web.
 
Other resources such as a catalogue of livestock-for-development films are available from the International Livestock Research Institute. Featuring over 100 short videos and several documentaries, this collection gives farmers hands-on methods for effectively working with cattle diseases.
 
The University Library has also been involved in capacity-building projects related to digital library development across the country.
 
Adama University and Jimma University are also planning Open Access repositories.

Ghana

Open Access to scholarship and research

 
The Association of African Universities (AAU), Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH), INASP and EIFL have been spearheading Open Access initiatives among the academic and researcher community in Ghana and Africa as a whole. AAU and CARLIGH have held the first Open Access workshop in 2009. In July 2011, AAU and CARLIGH held another Open Access Institutional Repository Advocacy workshop (with financial support from EIFL) as a follow up to the first one and to affirm the designation of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) institutional repository http://dspace.knust.edu.gh:8080/jspui/as the national Open Access repository.
 
Every year, KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University Of Science and Technology) and the only institution with a live Open Access institutional repository celebrates International Open Access Week during October. Some of the activities will be aired on major radio stations. Activities related to Open Access include: debates, workshops on Open Access Institutional Repository platforms, seminars and many others. During this time, academic and research community at the University and in Ghana gather to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access institutional repositories; share ideas with colleagues; and inspire wider participation in establishing Open Access institutional repositories as a norm in promoting scholarship and research. Currently the awareness of Open Access is growing due to the annual Open Access week activities.
 
CARLIGH has organized series of workshops Installation and troubleshooting of DSpace repositories in University of Cape Coast, University for Development Studies, University for Education Winneba, Pentecost University.