Bradford University Repository
The aim of the project was to develop Virtual Scholars to include postgraduate theses and to develop an Institutional Repository populated with scholarly output from one or more pilot academic areas.
Executive Summary
The main aim of the JISC-funded Bradford University Repository Project – BURP! was to set up an online research archive to allow the University to showcase its scholarly output. A freely accessible OAI-compliant digital repository would also provide a tool for the University as a whole to manage research information, and demonstrate its scientific, societal and economic value to potential students, staff and funders. The scope of the repository was envisaged to be research materials - whether published or unpublished - covering images, text, audio and video.
The DSpace software package was chosen to host the institutional repository – Bradford Scholars. The choice was based on the flexibility and customisability of the software package. Dublin Core was the metadata standard of choice due to, among other things, its suitability for traditional, mainly text-based repositories.
The Project Team signed up three academic units – the Division of Archaeological, Geographical and Environmental Sciences (AGES); the School of Engineering, Design and Technology (EDT) and the School of Computing, Informatics and Media (CIM) – to collaborate on the information architecture of the proposed repository and to elicit trial content. An initial survey to gauge the level of awareness and expectations academics had of repositories was run across all academic units, and further in-depth interviews were held among trial unit staff. The results from the survey and interviews directed the BURP! team in the technical implementation of the repository as well as in their approach to advocacy work, support documentation and training provision.
The collaboration with academics and other stakeholders also helped to identify and review the existing collections of materials that could be hosted in the repository. Supporting guides and information was made available online alongside the Repository Policy Document and the Deposit Terms & Conditions. Further stakeholder information packs were created to assist in the dissemination of information and promoting the repository to academic schools.
Making the institutional repository installation interactive with both in-house and external systems was a main objective for the Project. Compatibility with the library catalogue, the content management system, the VLE and the federated search engine was deemed essential. Attention was also given to interaction with other external repository-related services like repository registries, various web search engines and repository hubs in order to incorporate Bradford Scholars into the wider national and international information infrastructure.
One positive outcome of the Project has been the level of enthusiasm generated across the University. Development paths are clear: the repository management have been requested to incorporate the latest RAE data to Bradford Scholars in order to test the ingest method and workflows. Further proof of positive response from researchers is the willingness of the University’s Research & Knowledge Transfer Committee to endorse a formal deposit policy for the University. This, if approved by the University Senate, will mandate participation and secure the future of the repository.
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