OpenDOAR: over 1,000 Repositories

[Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca>]

Congratulations to OpenDOAR on surpassing the milestone of over 
1,000 repositories!

SHERPA's OpenDOAR directory contains an authoritative, vetted 
list of institutional and subject repositories.

JISC Announcement: 
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2007/11/sherpa.aspx

Thanks to Peter Suber on Open Access News: 
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2007/11/sherpa.aspx

Libraries and librarians are responsible for leading in the 
development of a great many of these repositories.

Data from repository search tools such as OAIster and Scientific 
Commons illustrate that these repositories are beginning to fill. 
As of today, an OAIster http://www.oaister.org/ search 
encompasses nearly 14 million items; Scientific Commons http:// 
www.scientificcommons.org/, close to 16.5 million items.

As the repositories begin to fill, the value to our faculty and 
university administrators will become obvious.

An institutional repository can be, among other things, a 
gathering of an author's works, complete with citations to the 
journals in which the works were published.  This is not only 
greater access for everyone, it is a convenience to the author as 
well.  (Much less important than the key benefit of the IR to the 
author, enhanced impact through more citations, of course).

For the university administrator, the IR is a showcase of the 
work of the institution.  An open access article in the IR is 
available for showing to a potential donor, community group, or 
prospective student; no permissions involved, hence no costs, 
barriers, or delays.

Any opinion expressed in this e-mail is that of the author alone, 
and does not represent the opinion or policy of BC Electronic 
Library Network or Simon Fraser University Library.

Heather Morrison, MLIS
The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com