Advocacy Activities

Events

Repository promotion is often conducted at an individual or small group level. Larger events can also make for effective promotion. It is important to reach out to as many members of the institutional community as possible. You may wish to enlist a head of service to approach senior staff directly. Events should be informative, digestible and wherever possible tailored to the attendees' professional interests. Repository team members should attend with the express purpose of engaging individuals. Capitalise on success by rapidly following up on leads and contacts generated.

Making Presentations

Promoting the development and use of an institutional repository inevitably involves making presentations to a wide variety of audiences. The repository manager should take all opportunities that are available to them for presenting information about the repository to the various stakeholders within the institution. This can range from high profile dedicated repository launch events, more formal opportunities - for example at deparmental meetings, research committees and other internal seminars - through to simply taking the time to discuss the repository informally at a chance meeting over coffee. Keeping the messages simple and highlighting the benefits (as opposed to simply the features) of an institutional repository are key promotional tools. The content of each presentation will be defined by local circumstances and it is worth trying to tailor the content to the audience concerned, for example an audience of academics may appreciate most hearing about funder mandates and the requirements of their grants to place a copy of their work in an open access repository.

Faculty/Departmental Campaigns

Presentations promoting the new repository are also useful at departmental meetings. Securing an invitation to a departmental research committee is a very good opportunity to advocate the benefits of Open Access and self-archiving. Presentations may be more effective if they are delivered separately for academics, library staff and senior management.

However, institutional staff such as managers, librarians and repository administrators should be aware of concerns often voiced by academics regarding the deposit of their work. Examples of such concerns include the disruption of the traditional publishing model, the actual quality of work found in repositories, the fact that it could be time consuming and issues of work preservation. Anyone involved with advocating the repository should make sure they are comfortable with likely concerns and have answers prepared. The concerns and benefits for research repositories are quite different to those for learning and teaching repositories and anyone involved in promotional activities needs to be fully aware of these, particularly if the repository covers both functions.

Workshops & Training

Once the repository is in place running specific workshops and training on the use of the repository is a logical next step. FTaking authors through the processes of submission systems, or covering topics such as copyright, or the principle of open access are worthwhile sessions to run. It is also worth trying to get the repository represented on existing training programmes running within the institution. This prevents duplicating effort and there are several benefits to tapping into existing training opportunities. For example, postgraduates often receive a variety of training sessions in preparation for writing their theses and dissertations and this would be an ideal opportunity to introduce them to the details of submitting an e-thesis to the repository.

Posters

Printed media such as posters, leaflets and postcards can also be a useful way of promoting the repository to faculty. These can be distributed at events and presentations about the repository or can be sent out as an internal mailshot to academics. Again, keeping the message simple and offering well designed materials with a high visual impact will ensure the repository is presented in the best possible light.

Using the Media

A final opportunity for internal promotion of the repository is to use existing sources of internal media. Placing articles, news items and profiles in internal newsletters can improve the visibility of the repository. Internal media for staff, students or almuni can be considered and both hard copy and online options should be utilised. Email campaigns to either a small group of academics, or to the wider university community may also be worth considering. As your repository service develops, don't underestimate the power of a good news story: '500th item deposited', or 'geographers go open!', or 'university's top research theses now available to the world'.

Using social networking technology

A range of technologies can be utilised to publicise new deposits including syndicated feeds (such as RSS), twitter or networking sites such as facebook. This is particularly useful to get open educational resources into the public eye and most repositories can utilise feeds. Some of these activities can be time consuming and may need to rest with the original depositor but those that can be automated within the repository deposit workflow should be investigated. Several of the projects in the JISC/ HE Academy UKOER Pilot Programme have produced guidelines on how to get the best of such technologies and this blog post from JISC Cetis highlights which web 2.0 tools have been used to support a variety of functions, including publicity.