A Survey of SUNY Institutional Repositories

Abstract

A survey was conducted of SUNY institutions’ use of Institutional Repositories. About half the responding libraries maintain an IR (mostly University Colleges and Centers) and about half do not (mostly Community Colleges). Most of the schools with no IR (80-90%) have no intention of creating one, and many of these respondents have not even heard of the main platforms.  SUNY Libraries with IRs are absorbing their costs (human and otherwise), and most report assigning staff to their IRs only “as time allows”—part time, student workers, etc.  Existing IRs contain a varied (and sometimes confusing) mix of content, but certain trends emerged: DSpace is used most effectively for student work, Digital Commons for faculty work, and other platforms (like Collective Access or New York Heritage) are used by schools that have visually-oriented special collections. Understanding this could help us streamline and coordinate our efforts.  We see a big opportunity for Community Colleges to use IRs to highlight student work, in support of student success, but a more unified and centrally supported system would have to be in place. We also have a great opportunity to support a SUNY OA policy, but we need a more centralized vision and “boots on the ground” to get the word out to faculty on our campuses.