Preprint
Roles of engagement: Evaluating the institutional repository through scholarly communication research
Drexel University Libraries. Library staff research and publications
19 Mar 2010
Abstract
The Drexel E-Repository and Archives (iDEA) is an institutional repository (IR) designed to capture and permanently store the scholarly output of Drexel University. Like many IRs, iDEA suffers from a lack of awareness by the Drexel community, and deposit rates are low. In order to make iDEA more relevant to the Drexel community, our study investigates existing research practices at the University. Over 100 faculty and graduate students responded to a survey about scholarly communication, defined as how scholars use and disseminate information through formal and informal channels. Survey responses revealed a wide variety of methods of sharing research and keeping up with the research of others, as well as a general lack of awareness about open access and institutional repositories. We then conducted in-depth interviews with a subset of these researchers in order to explore their scholarly communication practices in more detail, to explain iDEA's function, and to generate ideas for improving iDEA's content and services. Researchers' responses suggest new functions for iDEA as a tool for collaborative and interdisciplinary research, and new ways for librarians and archivists to support research processes at the University.
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Details
- Title
- Roles of engagement: Evaluating the institutional repository through scholarly communication research
- Creators
- Rebecca Goldman (Author) - Drexel UniversityJay Bhatt (Author) - Drexel UniversityRobert Sieczkiewicz (Author) - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Drexel University Libraries. Library staff research and publications
- Resource Type
- Preprint
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Drexel University Libraries; Information Science (Informatics)
- Identifiers
- 991014632307704721