Institutional Repositories Movement in India: Tips & Strategies for Success in the Challenging Times

Abstract

The paper highlights the institutional repositories (IRs) movement in India updated till Nov 2009. The paper attempts to identify and evaluate institutional repositories in India with special reference to initiatives taken by twelve DRDO laboratories/establishments including DESIDOC. This paper gives a comprehensive listing of workshops conducted in India to promote development of IRs and also lists institutional repositories developed in India, most of which are available in the public domain. The IRs are identified through a study of the literature, as well as internet searching and browsing. A questionnaire based survey followed by select telephonic interviews were conducted to examine the number of DRDO labs/estts, who have already hosted IRs, and those who intend to do so in the near future. Use of open source software, especially DSpace, is found to be most commonly used for the creation of IRs in India. The collection size in most of the IRs of India is in few hundred records only. IRs face a seemingly endless set of interrelated challenges. Most pertinent questions are: How can we attract content? And how can we integrate IRs into the Institutions landscape? The paper highlights the Indian initiatives in the field of IRs. It provides an overview of the 69 institutional repositories of Indian institutions in a range of subject disciplines. This article highlights software requirements for setting up IRs and the current trends in India. The paper conducts a literature review and questionnaire survey on IRs already established and those planned in near future among DRDO Labs/Estt and to incorporate it with the authors’ own experiences. The authors believe that institutional repositories will help in the sharing of institutional intellectual output and will increase article citations and the impact factors of Indian publications. The LIS professionals should play a proactive role in the growth of e-resources in institutional repositories to enable IRs to become sustainable in the future also. This paper explores some of the challenges and benefits to libraries operating an IR. Lastly, this paper will examine the future of IR’s as it relates to issues in sustainability and viability for institutional repositories.