Enhancing the value of Institutional Repositories with Emerging Technologies (IRET)
Funding Area: Critical shared infrastructure / Infraestructura compartida critica
Problem Statement: Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) host three repositories namely SUA Institutional repository (SUAIR) (various publications from diverse fields), TaCCIRe (climate change related information) and Mkulima repository (for farmers). However, these repositories lack essential features such as Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID), social media, chats services and usage details, thus hinders users from taping maximum benefits of the IR. This is a serious problem because lack of these facilities affects researchers’ visibility and research impact. Social media on the IRs facilitate user interactions, consequently IRs’ effectiveness (Shajitha & Majeed 2029). Furthermore, lack of usage details of the research outputs may discourage researchers because they are not aware how their works impacts the society. Sustainability of IRs can be ensured when users are aware of how their publications are used (Boulton 2020). Therefore, this project will integrate innovative features on SUA IRs to enable discoverability of the repositories’ content, effective communication, information sharing and impact assessment of the contents on the repositories. Shajitha, C & Majeed, KC 2019. Faculty Perceptions towards Institutional Repository at Cochin University of Science and Technology, India: a case Study. DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, 39(5). Boulton, S. 2020. Social engagement and institutional repositories: a case study. Insights: the UKSG journal,33.
Proposed Activities: The following are the key activities of this project 1. Create awareness-on the benefits of the emerging technologies such as social networking platforms and researchers’ identification (ORCID) inline with FAIR principles (November 2023 and beyond). 2. Promote selected emerging technologies including social networking platforms and user IDs (ORCID) in line with research life cycle. This include assisting users of the repositories to create individual accounts for the selected technologies (December 2023 and beyond) 3. Establish technical requirements of the existing institutional repositories such as SUAIR, Mkulima repository and TaCCIRe to enable customization and system integration. This include integration of the ORCID functionalities with the institutional repositories (January-April 2024). 4. Integrate monitoring and evaluation functionalities (metrics) into the institutional repositories to gauge the impact of the research output after implementation of the project (April 2024). 5. Establish a mechanism that will help to identify, inform and implement open access institutional repositories trends to keep the institutional repositories at SUA update and relevant to the researchers (May –July 2024). 6. Capacitate library staff on how use the innovations to support library users (August-September 2024) 7. Share the final interface of the institutional repositories to various users including researchers, postgraduate students, SUA management and library staff (October- November 2024) 8. Collect feedback from users to identify areas that need further improvements (November 2024 and beyond). This project need expert in system development, metadata management, quality control, communication and ethical and legal use of information. Relating to the resources, the project needs funds for technical work, training, communication and promotion of the improved institutional repositories and functionalities. On top of these, the project needs support from SUA management.
Openness: This project is open in the following aspects 1. Implementation of the project: The information about the project's goals, progress, and decision-making procedures will be openly available to allow its accessibility to the project stakeholders and other interested parties. 2. Adherence to Open Standards: The implementation of this project will adopt open standards to ensure compatibility and interoperability with other systems and projects, enabling seamless integration and data exchange. 3. Open access to project output-The research output such as research report, training materials and promotion materials will be openly available to maximize the impact of the project. More importantly, the dataset emanating from this project will openly (permissive license) be published to enable wide access and use. 4. To engage with the broader community, the project will organize workshops and webinars to engage project stakeholders and gather feedback from them. In addition to face-face meetings, the project will use online platforms to facilitate accessibility of trainings and training materials by anyone interested.
Challenges: 1. Ensuring data Privacy and Security can be a challenge. Therefore, the implementation of this project must adhere to data protection regulations. 2. Resistance to adopt and use the technologies: This project may face low adoption rates from users of the repositories due to different reasons including lack of awareness of the benefits of ORCID. Thus, adequate training and support to library staff, IT personnel, researchers, and administrators on using ORCID effectively is important 3. Difficult to integrate ORCID with existing systems. Integrating ORCID with the institutional repository may require adjustments to existing workflows, systems, and databases. Coordinating with various stakeholders (library staff, IT personnel, researchers, etc.) is essential for a successful integration. 4. Inadequate data quality. Difference in metadata standards between the institutional repository and ORCID system is a challenge as it hinders data exchange and linking to other systems. To ensure effective implementation, the project must set metadata standard to avoid creating duplicate or inaccurate records. 5. Lack of institutional collaboration. The implementation of this project may require collaboration with other institutions like the institution that hosts ORCID system. Institutional collaboration requires setting terms and condition
Neglectedness: We have not applied for the funding anywhere else for this project because funding opportunities relevant to Tanzania is lacking. The information about IOI Open Infrastructure Fund 2023 was obtained from IOI staff, this year (2023) June during the 18th International Open Repository Conference, Capetown-South Africa.
Success: 1. High adoption rate of the ORCID and other technologies- the number of researchers, faculty members, and students who have successfully registered for ORCID iDs and linked them to their profiles in the institutional repository. Furthermre, number of researchers with social networking accounts such as ResearchGate, LinkedIn and Facebook. 2. The degree of completeness of the requires information in the ORCID accounts and other technologies 3. Improved data metadata inputs to the open institutional repositories at SUA. 4. Number of the contents in the open institutional repositories at SUA that are linked with ORCID 5. Improved compliance with funder and publisher mandates 6. Increased discoverability of the contents of the open institutional repositories at SUA 7. Improved consistency and reporting of the researchers’ productivity 8. Improved researchers’ workflow that enables to easily link and manage their ORCID profiles within the institutional repository platform.
Total Budget: USD 25000
Budget File: pdf
Affiliations: SOKOINE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE
LMIE Carveout: Our project fit to this category because, the project will be implemented in Tanzania and by the researchers from Tanzania. Tanzania is one of the Low middle income countries found in Sub Saharan Africa.
Team Skills: Dr Ester Ernest Mnzava (Project Leader) has expertise in information management and quality control with more than 8 years working in the academic library serving researchers, instructors and students, 4 years controlling the quality of the metadata of the Sokoine University of Agriculture Institutional Repository (SUAIR). Dr. Barakabitze has more than 8 years of experience working in the fields of open infrastructure, telecommunication systems, and ICT4D. He has knowledge of conducting successful training on the application of ICT technologies. Prof W.Mtega has vast experience in project management, research experience in knowledge management systems, mobile learning and social media. Prof Mtega is also a current Director of Sokoine National Agriculture Library Dr. Barakabitze has more than 8 years of experience working in the fields of open infrastructure, telecommunication systems, and ICT4D. He has knowledge of conducting successful training on the application of ICT technologies. Mr Lazaro Luhusa has expertise in ICT technologies, information system development and management including repositories using DSPACE technology and more than 10 years (2011 -up to date) working experience in the maintenance of two repositories at Sokoine University of Agriculture
How Did You Hear About This Call: Word of mouth (e.g. conversations and emails from IOI staff, friends, colleagues, etc.) / Boca a boca (por ejemplo, conversaciones y correos electrónicos del personal del IOI, amigos, colegas, etc.)
Submission Number: 155
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