IR system and features: study of Indian scenario

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to study various issues concerning the IR software/system involved in development of institutional repositories (IRs) in India.

Design/methodology/approach

The survey research method was used. The data collection tool applied for the study was a web questionnaire, which was created with the help of software provided by surveymonkey.com

Findings

It was observed that 79 per cent of the institutions had implemented the DSpace IR software package. The respondents considered the End‐user interface to be the top ranking IR‐system feature. It was found that all IRs supported Text (HTML, Postscript, PDF, Spreadsheet etc.) file formats. Half of the respondents marked bitstream copying as a long‐term preservation strategy. Almost all institutional repositories were OAI‐PMH‐compliant.

Research limitations/implications

Only Indian institutional repositories were studied.

Originality/value

This is the first detailed study focusing on the IR system/software aspects of IR. The present study has identified the existence of 16 functional IRs, some of which were not registered in any of the directories such as ROAR, Open DOAR.

Citation

Sawant, S. (2011), "IR system and features: study of Indian scenario", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 161-172. https://doi.org/10.1108/07378831111116985