Implementing Institutional Repository to Enhance Research Impact of MBRU Community

Abstract

In this electronic publishing age, academic institutions including universities have increasingly recognized that an institutional repository (IR) is an essential infrastructure for scholarly dissemination. An IR is a digital research archive consisting of accessible collections of scholarly work that represent the intellectual capital of an institution. It is a means for institutions to manage the digital scholarship their communities produce, maximize access to research outputs both before and after publication and also to increase the visibility and academic prestige of both the institution and authors. MBRU Research Repository is developed to collect, preserve and make accessible the digital content produced by students, faculty and staff of MBRU and maximize the value of existing educational digital content through implementation of long term digital preservation strategy and solution. A strategic planning is required before developing IR, several meetings were held between the library team and technology team for project planning focused mainly on infrastructural requirement, manpower, developing policy & guidelines, software selection, financial aspects, content selection and monitoring the implementation. Software selection is a crtical element in IR project. Library technology team had done market study and research on different solutions available for IR. MBRU Smart Services team worked closely with the library to ensure the appropriate software selection and to meet the technical requirement for the project implementation.