[OAI-eprints] Re: EPrints, DSpace or ESpace?

[Stevan Harnad]

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 sanjay.kataria at jiit.ac.in wrote:

> I want to take an initiative to design & develop the Institutional
> Repository but I have some queries:
> 
> 1. There are a number of open source softwares for the development of 
> an Institutional Repository which one is most user-friendly

The softwares are largely equivalent. See the BOAI Guide to Institutional
Repository Software, the SPARC resource guide and the Archives Registry:

    http://www.soros.org/openaccess/software/
    http://www.arl.org/sparc/IR/IR_Guide.html
    http://archives.eprints.org/eprints.php?action=browse#version

It is not the choice of which software to adopt that is important
but the adoption of a systematic institutional self-archiving policy,
targeting the intended content and content-provision by faculty. Without
an effective, focussed policy, the institutional archives will remain
empty, regardless of which software is adopted:

    "Developing a Policy"
    http://software.eprints.org/handbook/policy.php
    http://www.eprints.org/signup/sign.php

    "EPrints, DSpace or ESpace?"
    http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/2670.html

> 2.  What is the guarantee for upgrading of the software from the 
> source organization?

Each of the major softwares is being upgraded and maintained to keep it
compliant with the Open Archives Initiative (OAI) and make all the OA
Archives interoperable and harvestable. Upgrade-guarantees are not 
the problem: Institutional archive-filling policy is. 

    http://www.openarchives.org/

> 3   Data Security / Permission on LAN or WAN Environment

Not an issue. Self-archiving is for the purpose of providing Open Access
to a university's or research institution's published journal article
output -- for those would-be users at other institutions webwide whose
institutions cannot afford the subscription version.

> 4.  What about Copy Right Issue or Intellectual Property Right Issues?

There are no copyright or intellectual property issues. 92% of journals have
given their green light to self-archiving.

    http://romeo.eprints.org/stats.php

For what to do about the remaining 8% see:

    http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/#copyright1

The only issue is implementing an effective, targeted, archive-filling
policy.

> 5.  What skills are required to operate or customized the software

    "What Skills Do You Need To Run The Archive?"
    http://software.eprints.org/handbook/managing-background.php

> 6.  What type of infrastructure required / Preplanning for Hardware or
> software, scanner etc.

    http://software.eprints.org/requirements.php
    http://www.dspace.org/technology/system-docs/
    
> 7.  Which format should be used to save the data, for easy search

The problem is not data-format or easy-search but archive-filling policy.
The reason OA archives are OAI-compliant is so they can be harvested
by and jointly searched with OAI search engines such as OAIster, which
currently harvests 3,701,820 records from  363 institutions.

    http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/o/oaister/

Lately scholar-google is providing yet another way to search them:

    http://scholar.google.com/

The challenge is not search but archive-filling. At least one of the
stored versions of the full-text, however, should be screen-readable
and harvestable for inversion by google.

> 8. Other technical aspects we should keep in mind before starting?

See: http://www.soros.org/openaccess/software/
     http://www.arl.org/sparc/IR/IR_Guide.html
     http://software.eprints.org/handbook/

> 9. Kindly mention the Role of the librarian, Role of the faculty, Role of
> the institute

    http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/#researcher/authors-do
    http://software.eprints.org/handbook/libraries.php
    http://software.eprints.org/handbook/universities.php

> Thanks & Regards
> ==*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*
> Sanjay Kataria
> Learning Resource Centre
> Jaypee Institute of InformationTechnology (Deemed-to-be-University)
> A-10, Sector-62, Noida (UP) 201307 India
> Ph. 0120-2400973 to 978 Ext. 251
> 09810503341 (Mobile)
> E-mail: lib_scholar at rediffmail.com, katariasanjay2001 at yahoo.com,
> sanjay.kataria at jiit.ac.in
> Website: www.jiit.ac.in
>