An Institutional Repository for the UMB Campus: a white paper

Abstract

Institutional repositories offer a new model for the dissemination of scholarly publications and increase access to resources. The development of an institutional repository will help promote the mission of the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) to educate and conduct research by applying state-of-the-art technology to organize and present the intellectual work of its scholarly community. The Executive Director of the Health Sciences and Human Services Library (HSHSL) established the Repository Information Project Task Group (RIPTG) in May 2008 to explore the feasibility of such a project. The group envisions a repository that while institutional in scope, allows the University’s constituent schools and individual community members to define their own identities and highlight their accomplishments underneath the UMB umbrella. Equally important, the repository should be scalable, designed from the outset to allow for future growth in participation and content. The RIPTG concludes that the HSHSL, a technological innovator on campus and an expert in selecting, organizing, storing, and providing the information the campus community needs, is uniquely positioned to develop and implement an institutional repository for UMB. While there will be some cost for computer hardware and software to host the repository, current HSHSL personnel have the expertise to develop a world-class repository.