Content Strategies

Knocking down one domino doesn't achieve a great deal, but knocking a whole row down causes an unstoppable chain reaction. In the same way many repository managers have found that it is possible to propagate the population of their repositories through targeted efforts. Some possible approaches are listed below.

Bulk uploading metadata-only records

Populating your repository with metadata (bibliographic) only entries can be a quick way to score points with administrations focused solely on numerical metrics, whilst at the same time conferring less advantage to the user research community. This can be a stepping stone to successful deposition through the identification of all papers published within an institution, you will have a clear idea of authors to target in any focussed advocacy. Likewise the necessity of working with your research support unit (or similar) to access their database of publications in the first place, may well offer synergistic opportunities.

However, it is very important that as you develop your service, you supplement these bibliographic entries with the full text to allow end-users to easily access the content itself. Finally, whilst populating a repository with all the recorded published papers of the institution may give you an idea of how far you have to go to achieve a realistic level of successful ingest, it can also be a significant demotivator once you realise the scale of the task contrasted with your staff resource. It may be worth keeping metadata-only records in a 'dark' area of the repository, where they are of use to the repository manager, but not publicly accessible until they have a full-text bitstream associated with them.

Full text items vs metadata-only records in repositories

In the repository community there is debate about whether repositories should contain only items that are available in full-text or whether repositories which contain metadata-only records without the full-text attached are still useful. If the full-text is not included it can be considered as going against the concept of open access and may disappoint users of the repository that access to the full-text is not available. However, the inclusion of a metadata-only record still highlights the existence of the piece to the wider world through search and discovery services thus, making it more visible. Metadata-only records can enable a fuller picture of the output of an individual academic, a department, or the institution, which may be helpful for research management and populating staff profiles/CV pages. Whether or not you want to include metadata-only records within your repository is something to consider as part of your collection policy under your policy framework. However, the initial inclusion of a metadata-only record for an item subject to an embargo period, followed up with the full-text of the item when possible, can be one solution to dealing with embargoed items within your repository.

Bulk Import

Most repository platforms come with inbuilt functionality to accept bulk imports of items. Sometimes these items may be exported from a different repository platform, from a local research management system, from a personal bibliography management system, or from an export of a commercial abstracting and indexing service. Using bulk import allows a set of records to be automatically ingested in one go.

How they work: Each repository platform will have its own preferred format(s) for bulk importing items. These range from xml files containing metadata and links to files, to zip packages, or comma separated format (CSV) files. The documentation for your repository platform will detail the format. If you have access to technical staff resources who are happy to re-format data from one format into another, then they will be able to easily convert your data into the correct format. The metadata for each item will need to be saved, along with any associated files. Repository platforms usually export in the same formats that they can import. Typically it is therefore possible to export items from one repository, and import them directly into another repository that uses the same platform. Exporting items is also a good way to examine the file format to see how it works.

A standardised approach: Each repository platform has its own import format. This could cause a problem if you wanted to import the same set of records into several heterogeneous repository systems. A possible solution would be to use SWORD as a standardised deposit system. The SWORD packages could be deposited simultaneously to each of the target repositories.

Involving administrative staff

Departmental administrators and similar support staff can be an exceptionally successful route to both population of the repository and an extension of the marketing message. Administrators often already maintain databases of publications, both full-text and bibliographic. They also likely have the ear and confidence of the academic staff with whom they work, and are powerful intermediaries when you need to communicate a repository related issue. Involving them as the prime depositors for a group of academics following brief training can ensure a ready flow of material into the repository. This also helps to assuage academic time-demand concerns over this activity.

A drawback to using this approach can be the de-prioritisation of the repository in the eyes of the academics from a vital research function, to an ancillary administrative task. This may not be readily apparent until there is a requirement to approach a publisher directly seeking revision to retained open access permissions for an article, only to discover the academics are disengaged from the whole scholarly communications debate. Thus it is vital to continue activities that engage directly with the academics for the long term success of the repository.

Involving other staff

Wherever possible draw more staff into whatever activity you have planned, classical marketing and advocacy. Many hands may make light work and allow your message to reach a broader audience. However, it is essential to maintain control of the situation in order to ensure that all involved are aware of the key messages and ethos of the repository. Perhaps crucially they also need to possess a firm awareness of planned future developments.