Cambridge University repositories enhancement
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This project created a connector between an institutional virtual research environment and an institutional repository. It is designed to be reusable in a number of different institutions where policy on deposit varies by means of a flexible deposit configuration system.
Executive Summary
In the process of executing the project:
- the various stakeholders came to understand institutional cultural differences and address them in such a way that recent projects with a strong Repository and research dissemination/visualisation aspect have been more joined up than would previously have been possible
- we developed an approach to policy expression designed both to avoid creating unnecessary tension within the institution during its development, and also to be authorable by a wide range of individuals
- we have sought to record and capture lessons learnt (based, in part on case studies) for future institutionalisation projects
- we developed a number of techniques which allowed apparent barriers to integration to be overcome by technical-architectural tools
- we open-sourced the integration
- we modified our approach to metadata/data binding in light of community feedback and developed a spreadsheet-based automated approach with which contributors felt comfortable, but which required a number of technical obstacles to be overcome through the use of creative programming techniques.
We retained management and liaison staff who communicated, educated and supported Institutional Repository adopters.
The institutions involved are committed to continuing to expand upon the work of the project.