The Embedding Repositories event took place yesterday at the University of Lincoln. Fears of snow and /or flooding were greater exaggerated, and most people who had booked for the event were able to make it. We were looked after very well by Julian Beckton and the staff at Lincoln, and enjoyed copious cups of tea and coffee as well as a lovely lunch, all of which fueled much networking and debate.
The broad theme of the day was for people to look at, think about and discuss where else the institutional repository might go, once it has been built and starts to amass deposits. Our speakers gave an excellent mix of case studies, ideas and techniques for building and developing the IR. All the presentations are now available on the event wiki. Gareth Johnson the IR manager at the University of Leicester, has blogged about the individual sessions.
Working in the repositories field, I am always delighted by how colleagues make the most of any chance to be together and exchange ideas and experiences. Yesterday was no exception, and the event soon had a life of it's own taking the basic framework of the programme into several interesting areas and making the topics live.
The first theme to emerge was that of librarians and developers working as a team, and how effective this can be. Julian Beckton at the University of Lincoln and Sally Rumsey at Oxford University had both worked with technical colleagues to customise their repositories. For their projects, this had clearly been a fruitful partnership. But others who hadn't got access to dedicated technical staff highlighted how difficult it can be when you are expected to have technical abilities on top of all the other requirements of an IR manager. The interest that JISC has in developing technical ideas with the HE community (see this week's "Developer Happiness Days" event in London) was seen as a positive thing and teamwork as the way forward.
The second theme was related to this, but took people off in another direction asking what exactly the IR needed to develop to meet the new demands of the HE community. Was the front end, the end-user interface, really that important? Or should we be focussing on building robust systems that are concentrating on storage and output, making the IR as flexible as possible and leaving the interface for the end users to someone else. Ideas such as making the output of the IR available in Pageflakes, as applications in Facebook - basically creating many 'hooks' to link into whatever end users wanted to use. There were no clear answers, but much fuel for thought here.
Finally, the burning question for everyone was... the REF. Everyone wanted a much clearer idea of what the REF would require, what it would involve and how it might affect their work. Despite the feeling that it is something of a black box at the moment, people are hopeful that it will be a positive challenge for the IR, giving it a higher profile and further embedding it into the individual institutions.
Lucy Keating from Newcastle University asked a question in her presentation that summed up the starting point for many discussions - "Do deposits go into your repository to die... or to be reborn?" By the end of the day, I was feeling rather evangelical about where the UK IR managers might be taking their repository content. They certainly don't see their repositories as a graveyard for deposits. Despite the cold and the dire weather threats and the early start (!) I felt quite energised - reborn in fact!
The event wiki is now open for discussion, please feel free to join us.
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Thursday, 5 February 2009
SUETr Embedding Repositiries Event - Update
This event will take place at the University of Lincoln next week, on 10th February. We still have some places available, although the event is filling up so if you're interested please sign up soon!
A full programme for the day is available on the event wiki. Please use the online booking form if you want to book a place.
In the initial implementation of the repository, the focus is firmly on basic advocacy, getting submissions and dealing with the inevitable teething troubles of software, policies, workflows - getting the basics right. As more repositories start to mature and to build up a steadily increasing number of deposits, staff working with the IR can start to think about the next steps.
The presentations and the workshop that make up this event are all focussing on the question of 'what next?' with the institutional repository from a variety of perspectives. Julian Beckton will be talking about handling teaching and learning objects within the IR -something that IR managers are increasingly being asked to plan for in the future, and which Julian is already working on with LIROLEM. Sally Rumsey will look at integrating the repository into other area of the institutional network, as she is doing with ORA. Mary Robinson of SHERPA works on a European-focussed projects such as DRIVER and also has practical repository experience through her work on The Depot and will be looking at linking up the institutinal repository into a wider network repositories.
The workshop, run by myself and Lucy Keating of the Newcastle University EPrints, will focus on what we can do with repositories once they are populated - both for our own users and for the wider support of scholarly communications. The idea for the workshop grew out of a conversation the Lucy and I had at a recent Repositories Support Project (RSP) Focus Group, where I was inspired by Lucy's ideas for using the deposits in the IR to populate many new information and research resources. The session wil begin with a short presentation by Lucy, then we will be exploring new ideas for content use with the group. Working with UKOLN and the RSP on repositories has given me a great chance to see and learn about many different kinds of IRs and the many different approaches that are being taken in this area both here and abroad. When repository staff get together, I usually find that the ideas flow, and I suspect my hardest job of the day will be keeping us all to time!
A full programme for the day is available on the event wiki. Please use the online booking form if you want to book a place.
In the initial implementation of the repository, the focus is firmly on basic advocacy, getting submissions and dealing with the inevitable teething troubles of software, policies, workflows - getting the basics right. As more repositories start to mature and to build up a steadily increasing number of deposits, staff working with the IR can start to think about the next steps.
The presentations and the workshop that make up this event are all focussing on the question of 'what next?' with the institutional repository from a variety of perspectives. Julian Beckton will be talking about handling teaching and learning objects within the IR -something that IR managers are increasingly being asked to plan for in the future, and which Julian is already working on with LIROLEM. Sally Rumsey will look at integrating the repository into other area of the institutional network, as she is doing with ORA. Mary Robinson of SHERPA works on a European-focussed projects such as DRIVER and also has practical repository experience through her work on The Depot and will be looking at linking up the institutinal repository into a wider network repositories.
The workshop, run by myself and Lucy Keating of the Newcastle University EPrints, will focus on what we can do with repositories once they are populated - both for our own users and for the wider support of scholarly communications. The idea for the workshop grew out of a conversation the Lucy and I had at a recent Repositories Support Project (RSP) Focus Group, where I was inspired by Lucy's ideas for using the deposits in the IR to populate many new information and research resources. The session wil begin with a short presentation by Lucy, then we will be exploring new ideas for content use with the group. Working with UKOLN and the RSP on repositories has given me a great chance to see and learn about many different kinds of IRs and the many different approaches that are being taken in this area both here and abroad. When repository staff get together, I usually find that the ideas flow, and I suspect my hardest job of the day will be keeping us all to time!
Thursday, 18 December 2008
Fedora Day @ RSP
In case you haven't noticed (where have you been?) RSP is running some Fedora Commons training in January. More information at:
http://www.rsp.ac.uk/events/index.php?page=FedoraDay/index.php
Monday, 15 December 2008
Event Announcement - Advocacy & Cultural Change
The next SUETr event – Advocacy & Cultural Change - will be on 22nd January 2009. York St John University will be hosting the event. At the start of the SUETr project, the first task was to talk to people working on the various Start Up & Enhancement - SUE - projects and find out the areas they wanted covered in the SUETr programme of events. In part, this was done via a questionnaire, and at the same time we collected names of projects who would be willing to host an event. York St John University volunteered then, and we took them up on the offer.
The event is designed to give IR managers some different perspectives on how the institutional repository and also the concept of open access to scholarly works is impacting on other sectors in related fields. To this end, we will be having presentations from a publisher, a researcher/author and a funder.
Another aspect of the day will be to to encourage good communications with these sectors in changing times, and to aid in building good relationships in a fast-changing environment. I am delighted that Fred Friend, the Honorary Director of Scholarly Communications at UCL will be the opening speaker for this event. Fred has much experience in this field and throughout his many changing roles in the UK HE sector, he has championed advocacy and good communications both within the sector and between HEIs and the wider world. There is a speaker profile of Fred available on the event wiki -
I will be announcing the specific publisher, author and funder shortly here on the blog, and also updating the event wiki. Check the wiki for more information and updates. You can register to be notified by email when the event wiki is updated.
Due to a slight holdup, the booking form is not yet available, but with Christmas fast approaching, I wanted to give people notice of the event as soon as possible. The arrival of the form is imminent, and I will update the event wiki and post here as soon as it is available. In the meantime, if you are interested please check back or email me to register your interest and I’ll drop you a personal mail when the form is available. Mail me at s.taylor (at) ukoln.ac.uk
The event will be advertised today via email lists, web sites and of course here, and the next two events in the programme will be advertised later this week. I hope you find the event of interest.
The event is designed to give IR managers some different perspectives on how the institutional repository and also the concept of open access to scholarly works is impacting on other sectors in related fields. To this end, we will be having presentations from a publisher, a researcher/author and a funder.
Another aspect of the day will be to to encourage good communications with these sectors in changing times, and to aid in building good relationships in a fast-changing environment. I am delighted that Fred Friend, the Honorary Director of Scholarly Communications at UCL will be the opening speaker for this event. Fred has much experience in this field and throughout his many changing roles in the UK HE sector, he has championed advocacy and good communications both within the sector and between HEIs and the wider world. There is a speaker profile of Fred available on the event wiki -
I will be announcing the specific publisher, author and funder shortly here on the blog, and also updating the event wiki. Check the wiki for more information and updates. You can register to be notified by email when the event wiki is updated.
Due to a slight holdup, the booking form is not yet available, but with Christmas fast approaching, I wanted to give people notice of the event as soon as possible. The arrival of the form is imminent, and I will update the event wiki and post here as soon as it is available. In the meantime, if you are interested please check back or email me to register your interest and I’ll drop you a personal mail when the form is available. Mail me at s.taylor (at) ukoln.ac.uk
The event will be advertised today via email lists, web sites and of course here, and the next two events in the programme will be advertised later this week. I hope you find the event of interest.
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Interoperability Workshop
Finally managed to secure a venue and a date in what is a very busy December and I'm pleased to announce that we will be holding a SUETr Interoperability Workshop in London on the 9th December. Michelle Blake at the LSE Library has kindly agreed to host us and we have talks from Jim Downing (Cambridge) on RSS/Atom, Adrian Stevenson (UKOLN's very own) on SWORD and Rob Sanderson will talk about OAI-ORE and his experience of the Foresight project. Hopefully that'll all sound rather interesting and you'll sign up soon. As ever the event is free to attend - you just got to get yourself there! Looking forward to meeting with some of you!
Monday, 13 October 2008
All quiet, but not for long...
We've not posted here for a whole month and a half and you are probably wondering what we are up to? No? :-) Oh well, even if you were not, I'm going to tell you!
First up Maureen has moved to an exciting new job with the British Library at Boston Spa and we'd like to (belatedly) wish her luck on her new job!
Second, one of my UKOLN colleagues - who I'm sure is fast becoming well known on the repository circuit - Stephanie Taylor has taken up the mantle of sorting out some interesting and exciting events for you, the first of which is currently over there on the right - y'know, under forthcoming events - and all about that most thrilling of subjects, copyright! ;-) (Actually, I think it is a very interesting and very challenging topic!) I'm sure Steph will tell us more when she can.
I'll be arranging an event too - on Interoperability - just in time for your Christmas shopping trips to London - on the 9th December. More details will appear here as soon as I'm confident we'll have somewhere to sit!
I trust all is well out there in SUE projects-land and we look forward to meeting you at our events soon!
First up Maureen has moved to an exciting new job with the British Library at Boston Spa and we'd like to (belatedly) wish her luck on her new job!
Second, one of my UKOLN colleagues - who I'm sure is fast becoming well known on the repository circuit - Stephanie Taylor has taken up the mantle of sorting out some interesting and exciting events for you, the first of which is currently over there on the right - y'know, under forthcoming events - and all about that most thrilling of subjects, copyright! ;-) (Actually, I think it is a very interesting and very challenging topic!) I'm sure Steph will tell us more when she can.
I'll be arranging an event too - on Interoperability - just in time for your Christmas shopping trips to London - on the 9th December. More details will appear here as soon as I'm confident we'll have somewhere to sit!
I trust all is well out there in SUE projects-land and we look forward to meeting you at our events soon!
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