Institutional Repositories

Abstract

In the context of the Open Access movement, repositories provide a window for scientific and academic communities to preserve and share knowledge. Glassman & Kang (2016) stress the importance of educational institutions developing technologies that support an open educational system. Accordingly, Ramírez (2015) mentions that open access is an opportunity to improve the transfer and dissemination of knowledge and discuss the relevance of repositories as a space to accommodate and recover scientific and educational production. In this sense, institutional repositories constitute a support for the open dissemination of knowledge, but also bring with them challenges that must be worked out in organizational cultures. A repository is a technological platform of open access to knowledge, which is directed to the storage, preservation and diffusion of the production generated in the institutions. MacIntyre & Jones (2016) emphasize the support of institutional repositories for research and the visibility they can bestow on institutions. Fontes Ferreira & Souza de Silva (2015), emphasize the idea that the more academic tools people have, with the support of repositories, the better academic level they will reach, as well as a modern way of studying. Empirical studies have provided evidence of the positive role of repositories; for example, Koler-Povh, Mikoš & Turk (2014) presented a study on the institutional repository of the University of Ljubljana in early 2011, where they found that 89% of its visitors came from other institutions. This shows how important are institutional repositories to publish information and how communication between institutions and universities contribute to open education. In contrast to the advantages provided by institutional repositories, it is also necessary to state the challenges existing in the environment of the open education movement. Davis, Carr, Hey, Howard, Millard, Morris & White (2010) present the problem of the poor response to open educational models, despite the great investment in infrastructure that is taking place. Cragin, Palmer, Carlson & Witt (2010) analyze the cognitive processes that lead authors to share or not their work, based on the study of their cognitive processes and the "open sharing" culture. Another challenge lies in the registration of resources so that knowledge can be "discovered" and used; for example, González (2016) found in his study that meta-information in articles of institutional repositories may be incomplete and that could generate difficulties to access this information. Hence the importance that authors and library staff should consider methods to improve the indexing of articles in order to be discovered.