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Purpose-- To describe how an institutional repository (IR) was set up, using open source software, at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kharagpur. Members of the IIT can publish their research documents in the IR for online access as well as digital preservation. Material in this IR includes instructional materials, records, data sets, electronic theses, dissertations, annual reports, as well as published papers. This opens up the world of scholarly publishing in a way that causes re-examination of many of the current practices of scholarly communication and publishing. Design/methodology/approach-- Details of the hardware and software requirements are provided along with information about available open source software. The steps involved in uploading and submitting material in the IR are described. Findings-- This paper provides evidence on how to set up an IR and how to create different communities and, under each community, many collections using the DSpace software. It was found that setting up an IR is very simple but its maintenance is very difficult. One person needs to have the computer knowledge, particularly in the Linux operating system environment and must be dedicated to carry out the IR administrative activities like registration, permission authenticity, submission and grant, installation of the updating version of the software, etc. Research limitations/implications-- Before setting up an IR, the institution should have sufficient funds to acquire computer hardware and other related software, and computer knowledgeable manpower. It can also be noted that after setting up a successful IR, the administrator must train the faculty members and research scholars regarding the proper uploading and submitting of metadata into the repository. Practical implications-- Guidelines are provided to assist those in setting up an IR. Appropriate staff are required to administer and run the IR smoothly. Originality/value-- An IR provides the IIT with a central [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the level of awareness and usage of open source digital repository software (DRS). The paper also studies the factors, which influence the level of awareness and usage of different open source DRS by academic librarians in India. Design/methodology/approach: The study administered an online questionnaire to academic librarians in India to know their level of awareness and usage of open source DRS. The questionnaire aimed to gather the awareness and usage of open source DSR. In total, 374 complete responses were collected from academic librarians in India and the collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Moreover, Fishers' exact test was used to identify whether factors i.e. qualification and participation in workshop/seminar influence the level of awareness and usage of open source DRS. Findings: The results of the study reveal that the level of awareness and usage of open source DRS, namely, DSpace (Mean = 2.92, SD = 0.906) and Greenstone digital library software (GSDL) (Mean = 2.18, SD = 0.699) are high amongst the academic librarians in India. In total, 33.4%, 11.5% of the participants are using DSpace and GSDL, respectively, on regular basis. Fishers' exact test shows that factor(s) i.e. qualifications and participation in workshop/seminar affect the level of awareness and usage of open source DRS. The results show that there exits strong relation between participation in workshop/seminar and awareness and usage of DSpace (Fishers' exact test = 13.473, p < 0.05). Originality/value: This paper is the new type of study exploring level of awareness and usage of open source DRS by academic librarians in India. It identifies the factors that affect the awareness and usage of open source DRS. It is the first study to analyze the statistical significance between Indian librarians' participation in workshop/seminar and their level of awareness and usage of different open source DRS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the file naming practices in 39 institutional repositories. There is evidence that calf-path exists in file naming among the curators of institutional repositories in India. The study showed that no standard or logic seems to have been followed by repositories in the naming of the files, except by the National Digital Library of India (NDLI) and the CSIR-National Institute of Science Communication and Policy Research (CSIR-NIScPR). The study also examined the composition of the filenames, which shows that the author names (11.2%), titles (11.9%), journal title with volume and issue numbers (21.1%) form the basis for the formation of filenames. It is suggested that digital repository managers have to give more attention to name files in the institutional repository in the interest of uniformity and consistency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – India occupies second position among the countries that have adopted DSpace open source software for institutional repositories (IRs)/digital libraries (DLs). The purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons for DSpace being preferred over other software. It inspects various instances of Indian web-based DSpace systems including the nature and growth of collection, the geographical distribution of DSpace systems and the types of institutions that adopt and maintain DSpace. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from the official website of DSpace, Google search and from online discussion forums during July 2013 to January 2014. The 132 Indian DSpace links provided in the official DSpace website were examined. Further search was carried out on Google to identify Indian IRs and DLs that are not listed by the official website. A list of Indian DSpace websites prepared by the authors was sent to the online discussion forums for further updating. An online directory of Indian DSpace websites was created using WordPress which provided for the adding of comments. The study is limited to the web-based DSpace IRs and DLs in India. Findings – The majority of the Indian IRs and DLs listed on the official website of DSpace are not visible on the internet. Many links lead to institution websites, commercial websites and personal pages of authors. Out of 132 DSpace links, only 55 are visible on the internet to search and use. Indian libraries prefer DSpace over EPrints, Fedora and Greenstone. Many institutions could not maintain continuity of their DSpace systems in the online environment. Institutions having more funding are maintaining web-based DSpace systems. The size, economic conditions, rate of literacy and number of universities in an Indian state do not influence the maintenance of digital systems. Academic institutions involving universities, technical institutions and colleges lead in the adoption and maintenance of web-based DSpace in India. Private universities and colleges have adopted DSpace for IR/DL. Public libraries constitute a minimum percentage of web-based DSpace instances. Indian courts and Parliament have adopted DSpace. Shodhganga, the Indian ETD project, is running on DSpace. Originality/value – This is the first paper examining the adoption of DSpace by Indian libraries with a focus on online visibility and the strength of collection. It can be used to understand the pattern of technology adoption by Indian libraries over the years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The present study aims to investigate the experience, contribution and opinions of users of respective institutional repositories (IRs) developed in India. Design/methodology/approach – The survey method was used. The data collection tool was a web questionnaire, which was created with the help of software provided by surveymonkey.com Findings – It was observed that 85.94 percent of respondents (154) were aware of the IR facility/service and 14.05 percent (26) were not aware of IR. More than half of the respondents, i.e. 52.43 percent (97), learned about the IR service through links provided on institutions' websites. About 36.21 percent of the respondents had not contributed to any type of repository, while 25.94 percent of respondents had contributed to their IR. A higher percentage (16.76 percent) of respondents felt it was an "easy and fast way to communicate research results". The majority of the respondents, i.e. 113 (61.08 percent), were willing to deposit symposium/conference/seminar papers. The most important reason for contribution was found to be preservation of documents for the future. Peer review was very much acceptable as a quality control mechanism. More than half of the respondents (57.84 percent) wanted to provide open access without any barrier for their ideal repository. Research limitations/implications – Only users of the respective Indian institutional repositories are studied, and the findings are compared with other studies. Originality/value – This is the first detailed study focusing on the users and their experience of institutional repositories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the determination of the number of simultaneous users of an institutional knowledge repository (IKR) at the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) Business School in Ahmedabad, India. Its aim is to describe a simulation on the IKR test bed at the Business School using a performance and load testing tool to be able to determine the number of users that the IKR can support on the institute intranet on a minimal server configuration. It is found out that the simulation exercises helped determine that about 10-15 simultaneous users with transaction failures of less that five could be supported on the institute intranet in the minimal configuration that the IKR test bed was built on.

The study has been undertaken with the purpose of the growth and development of Open Access Digital Repositories in SAARC Countries. The relevant data retrieve from OpenDOAR, in the analysis cover mainly country wise, various software's, types, languages, subjects, contents, and growth of Repository. Total 132 repositories are available among SAARC countries. It found that India has the highest position with 98 repositories. Most of the repositories preferred Dspace software (84) for the creation of repositories. The English language was seen as the most common language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The objective of this paper is to find out the rationale for institutional repository (IR) categories, and the challenges in sustainable development of open scholarship to facilitate scholarly communication. Design/methodology/approach – This is a critical study method adopted to find out the categories of IR and various developmental challenges with the aid of related literature. Findings – IR categories and their nomenclature are found to be overlapping when used by repository registries and librarians alike. As the digital objects in the repositories are expanding, with a requirement to store new entities as diverse as linked data and web archives, IR categorization becomes difficult to determine. Even though the growth of IRs in India is phenomenal, concerted research and development efforts to strengthen digital infrastructure and repository solutions in multilingual settings are slow. Originality/value – With the rapid growth of IRs worldwide, the categories with which these are classified is examined. As a contentious player in scholarly communication process, the challenges of IRs' development are underlined. The prospects and deployment of IRs requires funding and an appropriately skilled workforce, along with government support. This is viewed from global and Indian perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes India's Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) as a potential intervention in the administration of patent law. The TKDL is a database including a vast body of traditional medical knowledge from India, aiming to prevent the patenting and misappropriation of that knowledge. This article contextualizes the TKDL in relation to documentation theory as well as to existing research on the uses of databases to protect traditional knowledge. It explores the TKDL's potential consequences for India's traditional medical knowledge and the wider implications that traditional knowledge databases can have for the safeguarding of traditional knowledge in general. The article concludes that on the one hand the TKDL bridges the gap between the main branches of Indian traditional medicine and the formal knowledge system of International Patent Classifications. Furthermore, it has also inspired revisions of the International Patent Classification system, which makes it better adapted to incorporate traditional medical knowledge. On the other hand, critical research on traditional knowledge documentation argues that traditional knowledge databases, like the TKDL, can decontextualize the knowledge they catalogue and dispossess its original owners. The TKDL, however, also fits into a national, Indian agenda of documenting and modernizing traditional medicine that predates the formation of the TKDL by several decades and challenges the dichotomy between traditional and scientific knowledge systems that originally motivated the formation of the TKDL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spacenet is a Closed User Group (CUG)-based communication network of Department of Space/Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) catering to a variety of space community needs. It offers wide range potential benefits both to libraries and end-users across the ISRO centres in India. Over a decade, Spacenet has evolved as a community network for the space community in India. The paper explains how the resources various ISRO information centres are shared/utilised, digital libraries (DL) built, accessed, and institutional repositories (IRs) organised among the libraries using Spacenet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of the study is to assess the university libraries in North East India regarding their initiatives towards open access movement and conceptualize a model for Open Access Initiatives (OAI). Approach, Design and Methodology: Surveyed and identified all the universities in the eight states of North East India. Covered 11 central, 5 state and 4 private universities to understand open access initiatives taken up by them in their respective libraries collecting data through a semi-structurally designed questionnaire. Using statistical techniques, data have been analyzed to draw empirical conclusions. Findings: The study have revealed various issues associated with the libraries regarding their automation status, digitization process, different motives towards OA, establishment of institutional repositories, challenges and many more. The need for having a model for OAI for all the libraries of the region has been felt. Came out with a proposed model for OAI having eight phases comprising mainly of rejuvenation of library system, digitization, digital archiving, OA publications, constitution of a committee, etc. However, acceptability of the model by the libraries of the region needs to be taken care of by the concerned universities. Originality/value: The study is first of its kind in the area of open access initiatives taken up in the region. Findings provide a new vista for the university libraries, which are added feature in the context of the stock of the existing knowledge in the field. The conceptualized OAI model is a new proposal the acceptability of which being rest with the universities concerned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]