Open Repository Blog

Aiding those in poverty: Oxfam GB partners with Open Repository

Today Oxfam GB, a leading international charity with a worldwide reputation for excellence in the delivery of humanitarian aid and development work, has adopted Open Repository’s enhanced DSpace hosted solution. 

When Oxfam began a project to create a website to handle their policy, practice and research materials for professional audiences, they realized there was no single, secure deposit location for their  digital assets on poverty and suffering worldwide. Hence, they decided to implement a repository that could store their digital assets in multiple formats, have simple search and deposit functions to suit users with no background in repository use, and therefore enable Oxfam to showcase their large and ever evolving output of research, program learning and policy information to a global audience.

Having decided they needed a repository, Oxfam chose to implement a hosted solution because they lacked dedicated resources in-house to develop, manage and support one. By partnering with Open Repository, they received a customized repository: the Oxfam iLibrary comes  from a “tried and tested” company which incorporates advanced open source features and upgrades. This removed the internal technical demands required of an in-house solution, allowing Oxfam to focus on developing the content of the repository with their staff worldwide and ensuring quality metadata so their content is easy to find.

Speaking as the new system went live, Robert Cornford, Communications Manager from Oxfam GB said, “We have had a very interesting experience working with Open Repository to establish the Oxfam iLibrary, from working out a classification system for our very varied content through developing a remote deposit structure so people across our programme offices with limited IT experience can upload materials, to integrating with a separate website. We now have a repository where we can capture our experience for internal programme development, and share our knowledge externally easily and quickly through the website.  Our repository, the Oxfam iLibrary, will have an immediate impact on our own ways of working internally and, with our new information website now live, will make our content available to external audiences across the world.”

To learn more about why Oxfam chose a repository and how it was implemented, read their case study.

To see the new Oxfam website for development professionals, fed from the Oxfam iLibrary, visit to the Oxfam Policy and Practice website.

To learn more about how Open Repository can help you meet your open access requirements, please get in touch.

Posted by Nishkala Thiru at 15:37    Comments (0)

University of Derby internally launch their repository

The University of Derby recently held an internal launch for their research department to introduce their repository: UDORA.

The Pro Vice Chancellor for Research, Philip Plowden was the main speaker at the well-attended event, along with the Head of Research, Professor Paul Bridges.  Both gave impressive speeches on the benefits of open access and institutional repositories with many recognized benefits for the institute, researchers, the library and the general public as a whole.

The day was hosted by Richard Finch, Academic Services Manager for the University Library and the repository team: Melanie Keady, E-Resources Development Manager, Tim Peacock, E-Resources & Interlending Administrator and Val Wilkins, Resource and Metadata Librarian who have all put in a great deal of effort in making UDORA a success.

It was a pleasure to be invited to the event and be available to speak directly with the researchers, whom have shown a great deal of enthusiasm for the repository.  This launch has been very successful with a large increase of submissions from the researchers since the launch date with predicted figures expected to grow even more rapidly.

Open Repository was also honored in the speeches given, for the excellent service that the UDORA team have received.  You can read more details via the case study.

If you have any questions about UDORA or Open Repository, please do get in touch.

Claire Bundy, Open Repository Specialist

Posted by Nishkala Thiru at 16:13    Comments (0)

Open Repository in the USA: The University of Arizona’s repository

Open Repository is pleased to announce its first institutional US customer, the University of Arizona.

As a premier public research university, the University of Arizona’s Campus Repository, managed by the University Libraries, supports the dissemination of campus  intellectual output by collecting, archiving and preserving scholarly materials produced by campus faculty and researchers, as well as showcasing the materials to an unrestricted audience on a global scale.  

The University Libraries sought a hosted solution for the Campus Repository because they wanted to benefit from the experience and expertise the Open Repository staff had with DSpace technology. By implementing the Open Repository service, the Libraries now have a uniquely customized, reliable and cost-effective repository solution which allows library staff to focus on working with faculty and students to develop and maintain content in the repository.  In addition, Open Repository migrated the School of Information Resources & Library Science’s DLIST collection from E-Prints into the hosted DSpace UA Campus Repository.

When asked about the services from Open Repository, Kimberly Chapman, Campus Repository Service Librarian at University of Arizona said “The set up process has been straightforward and easy; we've appreciated the support from Open Repository. Open Repository has been helpful with metadata schema customizations and batch loading that have helped us move forward with several collections.”

If you would like to learn more about the University of Arizona’s Campus Repository or Open Repository, please do get in touch.

Posted by Nishkala Thiru at 10:31    Comments (0)

Claire Bundy joins DCAT

Claire Bundy, Open Repository Specialist, is the second member of the Open Repository Team to become a member of the DSpace Community Advisory Team (DCAT). Our service is a long-standing registered service provider for DuraSpace, and this further shows Open Repository’s commitment to helping to advance the DSpace software and developing resources/tools for DSpace users.  

The primary goals of DCAT are to help review and facilitate community-wide discussions about new feature requests and to provide support to the DSpace Committer group in producing software releases. This also includes finding project groups or stakeholders who could work on the development of the features.

Claire’s other activities for DCAT will also include:

• Monthly team teleconferences
• Review new feature requests, provide drafts of recommendations and lead DCAT discussion on the request
• Provide feedback about specific new feature requests
• Collaborate on other project, tools, resources which serve the community
• Help organize user group meetings
• Participate in mailing lists or discussion forums to share knowledge and best practices
• Periodically attend the DSpace Committers meetings

Posted by Claire Bundy at 17:11    Comments (0)

University of Bedfordshire adopts Open Repository

Open Repository is pleased to announce the University of Bedfordshire as a new customer, and welcome them into the OR community.

The University of Bedfordshire is the largest higher education institution in the county and has gained national recognition for its achievements in widening participation and teaching. The university has also established eight research institutes, which act to focus the research output of university staff, increase and support research quality and help communicate more widely its research achievements.  
We welcome the university both to the Open Repository and open access communities and will continue to work in partnership with them for their green open access needs. Keep referring to our blog for details of their launched repository.

If you would like to find out more about how Open Repository works in partnership with its global clients, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Claire Bundy
Open Repository Specialist

Posted by Claire Bundy at 12:00    Comments (0)

Open Repository joins the DSpace Community Advisory Team

Michael Guthrie, Manager of the Open Repository service, has recently become a member of the DSpace Community Advisory Team (DCAT). This shows Open Repository’s commitment to helping to advance the DSpace software and developing resources/tools for DSpace users.

The primary goals of DCAT are to help review and facilitate community-wide discussions about new feature requests in JIRA, and to provide support to the DSpace Committer group in producing software releases. This also includes finding project groups or stakeholders who could work on the development of the features.

Posted by Claire Bundy at 14:23    Comments (0)

Open Repository’s first Saudi Arabian Repository: KAUST

King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) is a new international university based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  With more than 60 nationalities of students, faculty and staff, its 36 square kilometer campus has cutting-edge laboratory and research facilities. Their mission is to advance science and technology through bold and collaborative research whilst educating scientific and technological leaders.

The launch of this repository with Open Repository will enable KAUST to capture and showcase their institute’s research and provide a centrally located, searchable index that can be showcased worldwide.

We welcome KAUST both to the Open Repository and open access communities and look forward to working in partnership with them for their green open access needs.

Posted by Claire Bundy at 14:23    Comments (0)

BioMed Central attends Gulf SLA-AGC

I was pleased to be in attendance at the Gulf SLA-AGC conference last month in Muscat, Oman. Hosted in the opulent surroundings of the Al-Bustan Hotel, it really did set the scene and provided an amazing backdrop for the two and a half day event.

I gave a 20 minute introduction to open access and information on how institutions can comply with open access mandates, implement open access at their institutions and follow the green route through setting up an institutional repository. The slides are now available to view here.

The presentation was well received and afterwards many people had questions on how exactly this could work at their institutions. Open access is still in its infancy in the Middle East so the reaction to my presentation was encouraging and provided a great insight into scholarly communication and the future dissemination of research.

All in all it was a great conference and I am looking forward to returning again soon. If you would like know more about the presentation or Open Repository, please do get in touch.

Simon Neilson,
Sales Executive

Posted by Claire Bundy at 19:00    Comments (0)

New case study on e-space

Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) is part of the largest higher education campus in the UK with one of the most extensive education centers in Europe.  In a project led by the Library Services, MMU partnered with Open Repository to launch e-space, their institutional repository. Reasons for this included 24/7 availability, daily back-ups of repository content and the additional training support and maintenance that is provided.

Details of MMU’s journey to creating a repository and how it is currently used and promoted can is detailed in their case study.
[Read More]

Posted by Claire Bundy at 15:26    Comments (0)

Open Repository joins DuraSpace Registered Service Provider program

Open Repository is pleased to announce we are now a DuraSpace Registered Service Provider. DuraSpace is a not-for-profit organization that aims to establish partnerships with companies that provide support services to institutions using DSpace and Fedora digital repository software. Open Repository shares their commitment to ensure that current and future generations have access to our digital heritage.

Being a Registered Service Provider reflects Open Repository’s position as an active participant in the DSpace open source software community, and our commitment to providing expertise and technical consulting to enable customers to achieve their open access goals by providing digital repositories.

Bryan Vickery, COO of BioMed Central says, “BioMed Central, through its Open Repository service, has been an active member of the DSpace development community for many years. By becoming a Registered Service Provider in the DuraSpace program, we further emphasize our commitment to DSpace, which underpins Open Repository, and demonstrate our important role in the future development and direction of the platform."

For more details please do not hesitate to contact us.

Posted by Nishkala Thiru at 14:53    Comments (0)

Repository Transfer from EPrints to Open Repository

Any institution with an EPrints repository can now move over to Open Repository with ease and convenience.

The University of Arizona made the decision last year to move their Digital Library of Information Science & Technology repository from EPrints to Open Repository. Our experienced development team planned the transfer to minimise the inconvenience to the university.

This conversion was achieved by exporting all of the content out of their EPrints repository, reformatting the data, and uploading the collection on their Open Repository. This was done so that all of the University of Arizona’s metadata and full text files were retained, resulting in a very smooth transition.

This collection is now available to view here. If you have any questions about this new service or Open Repository itself, please do get in touch.

Posted by Claire Bundy at 11:25    Comments (0)

Anglia Ruskin Launch their ARRO Open Access Repository

Anglia Ruskin University are one of the largest universities in the East of England, educating over 25,000 students including those in part-time education. They are one of the most significant suppliers of nurses and teachers to the professions, offering an ever-expanding range of contemporary courses designed to meet the needs of the individual and the requirements of a knowledge-based economy. The institute has a clear and exciting vision for developing its research, scholarship and knowledge transfer; one that is committed to the enhancement of social, cultural and economic well-being of the region with many committed researchers of international standing.

Posted by Claire Bundy at 15:24    Comments (0)

Enhanced Repository Statistics

Usage statistics have been a major topic of discussion for institutional repositories for some time. And last year, a survey of DSpace repository administrators put enhanced statistics as their most desired feature for the next release of DSpace.

Google Analytics provides a great interface and many advanced features for seeing the overall activity for the repository, and as such, we have offered a Google Analytics account alongside the repository - enhanced to record file downloads that would otherwise be missed. However, it's not always easy to see how this relates to an individual item or file, or it's relevance in the context of a collection or community.

Now, with the release of an API for Google Analytics, we are able to  provide enhanced reporting within the repository. At every level - Items, Collections, Communities and the repository as a whole - we can show how your content is being used, the items and files that are attracting attention, and the reach the repository is having.

Read more about the enhanced statistics now available as part of the Open Repository service  

Posted by Graham Triggs at 15:37    Comments (0)

Irish Health Service Executive (HSE) Open Repository Case Study Now Available

Open Repository is happy to announce a new case study on the OpenRepository.com website for the Irish Health Service Executive (HSE).

This as the Irish Times publishes an Article on Open Access: "The Government funded new OA archives at Irish universities while simultaneously requiring Government-funded research to end up in them. Suber would like to see more countries adopt the Irish model. “Ireland is ahead of the world,” he says. The Irish model spurs progress beyond its own borders, just as it takes in research from OA journals everywhere. For Suber that’s the point. “All of us benefit, because researchers benefit directly.”

Posted by Michael Guthrie at 16:50    Comments (0)

"Canadian Excellence" strengthened by extensive adoption of open access

• Wilfrid Laurier University adopts Open Repository and BioMed Central Membership
• Open access movement gains ground in North America

BioMed Central and Wilfrid Laurier University today announce the launch of Laurier IR, an institutional repository that provides a visible point of open access archiving of intellectual output for all members of the University community. Read more on the site...

Posted by Michael Guthrie at 16:53    Comments (0)