Development and implementation of an institutional repository for the CSIR-Food Research Institute

Abstract

An institutional repository is a digital archive of the intellectual product created by the faculty, research staff, and students of an institution and accessible to end users both within and outside of the institution, with few if any barriers to access. This report presents a practical account of an Institutional repository developed from planning to its implementation phase in the CSIR-Food Research Institute using AgriOcean Dspace, an Open Source Institutional repository software and also describes its objectives as well as the implementation workflows. The report notes that most of the academic and research institutes adopt the open source Institutional repository software’s for creating and developing their own repositories. It looks at the concept of open access institutional repositories, the technical consideration to follow in order to set up an institutional repository and further discusses the prospects to be derived from setting up an institutional repository (IR) and challenges it brings to those deciding to implement it. This report clearly states that the institutional repository is a very powerful idea that can serve as an engine for institutions of higher education and research institutes, and more broadly for the scholarly enterprises that supports research activities