RESEARCH

Open Access Digital Repositories: An Indian Scenario

Open access digital repositories give barrier-free access to literature for study and research to users worldwide. They solve the pricing and permission crises for scholarly materials. This paper deals with open access digital repositories in India. The results of the study reveal that the repositories contain both published and unpublished documents, like seminar proceedings, conference papers, theses, dissertations, research reports, books, and so on. The results also point out that open access digital repositories in India are mostly subject specific and commonly use open source information repository software like DSpace, Greenstone Software, and GNU . It is observed that generally the open access digital repositories use OAI-PMH (protocol for metadata harvesting), so that they can be accessed using search tools such as Web search engines, whereas a few don’t use it but provide direct access to their documents through their websites.

pen access to scholarly libraries cannot afford to subscribe Fayaz Ahmed Research Scholar, information has been to most of the journals that their Department of Library a hot topic of debate faculty need for their research and and Information O Science, University of among librarians, scholars, and teaching (Chan, 2004). The only Kashmir. publishers over the last few years. solution to these problems is open The scholarly communication access to scholarly information. Contact him at [email protected]. crisis encompasses two distinct Open-access (OA) literature is though inter-related problems. On digital, online, free of charge, the one hand, serial-subscription and free of most copyright and Rafiq Rather costs, particularly for science licensing restrictions. The main Contractual Lecturer, and medical journals, have been aim of open access is to facilitate Department of Library increasing rapidly over the last two the free flow of refereed literature and Information Science, University of decades, often at rates far above among researchers in different Kashmir. the cost of inflation. At the same disciplines over the Internet. There time, research library budgets have are a variety of definitions of Contact him at rafiq_rather@yahoo. been decreasing, or are otherwise “open access,” and the concept is co.in. unable to keep pace with price still evolving; however, several key increases. The result is that libraries documents, which build upon each are spending more, but they are other, collectively comprise the best in fact getting less in terms of current definition of this term. journal titles and new monograph acquisition, as more of the budget On his website, Peter Suber is consumed by serial subscriptions, mentioned that “By ‘open access’ we so even the richest university mean the free availability of literature on

16 Volume 2 Issue 1, March 2007 KnowGenesis International Journal for Technical Communication (IJTC) the public Internet, permitting any users that can be accessed through the value of open-access publishing in to read, download, copy, distribute, print, Internet and intranet to retrieve developing countries. Open-access search, or link to the full texts of these information. The British Library publishing enables researchers in articles, crawl them for indexing, pass defines Digital Repository as“An developing countries to establish them as data to software, or use them organization that has responsibility for priority for their research, which for any other lawful purpose, without the long-term maintenance of digital they could use later to defend their financial, legal, or technical barriers other resources, as well as for making them intellectual property. It removes than those inseparable from gaining access available to communities agreed on by the access barriers in terms of both to the internet itself. The only constraint depositor and the repository.” price and permission, enhances on reproduction and distribution, and national research capacity, and the only role for copyright in this domain, Open Access Digital Repositories improves visibility for developing- should be to give authors control over the have already started emerging in country research. Open access thus integrity of their work and the right to be different parts of the world. The enables a global platform for this properly acknowledged and cited.” University of Nottingham (UK) research and collaboration, and and Lund University (Sweden) reciprocates the information flow Completely open access removes officially launched OpenDOAR from South to North and East to price barriers (subscriptions, (Directory of Open Access West among all countries. licensing fees, pay-per-view Repositories) on January 27, 2006. fees) and permission barriers OpenDOAR presently contains Objectives of the Study (most copyright and licensing 792 repositories belonging The main objective of the study restrictions). Much has been said about the value of open-access is to provide Open access is comprehensive publishing in developing countries. Open-access publishing online access, information but it does not enables researchers in developing countries to establish about the open exclude print priority for their research, which they could use later to access digital access to the defend their intellectual property. repositories in same works. India. Open access is free of charge to to different countries of the readers, but it does not exclude world. Several enablers have priced access to print versions motivated the development of Scope of the Study The present study covers the of the same works, because print open-access publishing. These open access digital repositories in editions are expensive to produce, include global movements and India. Some of the repositories are they tend to be priced rather initiatives for open access like multidisciplinary in coverage and than free. Open access does not the , the some are subject specific. exclude printouts by users or Budapest Open Access Initiative, print archives for security and Scholarly Publishing and Resources long-term preservation. Open Coalition, and Free Online Methodology access helps to ensure long- Scholarship, as well as initiatives The study was completed in three term access to scholarly articles. undertaken by International stages using the observation Unlike articles that are licensed Council for Science (ICSU) and method. In the first stage, a in traditional article databases, UNESCO. Other important list of the open access digital libraries and others can create local enablers are the availability repositories of India was prepared copies and repositories of these of free online publishing and by accessing different sources, like resources. Libraries, by working digital repository management the “Directory of Open Access together to make repositories of software such as Greenstone Repositories” on the Internet. open access literature, can ensure Digital Library Software, and In the next stage, the selected continued access to these scholarly protocols for metadata harvesting, repositories were evaluated to publications into the distant future. like OAI-PMH. Using these obtain the required information The Digital Repository is one standard protocols for metadata regarding them. However, a few type of open access source where allows interoperability among the repositories that were not accessible literature is available free of cost in repositories for sharing information in the aforesaid period due to some digital form. A Digital Repository and providing centralized services. technical problems were excluded. is a collection of digital resources Much has been said about the In the final stage, the collected

KnowGenesis International Journal for Technical Communication (IJTC) Volume 2 Issue 1, March 2007 17 data was presented in tabular form, IR on behalf of the organizations and categorized under different concerned (Rajasekhar, 2003). headings, like subject, language, Table 1 lists the digital repositories documents available, number of covered in this study. items, software used, etc. to depict

E-mail Alerts

Yes

No the findings. Findings

Open Access Initiatives 1. The movements towards

OAI-PMH Compliant

No in India open access initiatives have Yes started in various states In India, there are many of India. The institutes noncommercial research and of different backgrounds development institutions, both have taken initiatives to

Software Used

DSpace

DSpace academic and research laboratories. establish open access digital For example, there are more than repositories, and libraries

No. of Items

191 300 universities that offer both are playing a key role. 427 graduate and research programs. 2. Most of the open access There are also many R&D digital repositories are laboratories operating within subject specific, dealing government science agencies with a particular branch of knowledge (e.g. DSpace

Documents available

Publications

Publications; Conferences; that cover domains like industrial Theses research, defense research, at the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune) and agricultural research, medicine, some are multidisciplinary ecology, the environment,

Language

English (e.g. Digital library at the English information technology, space, Indian Statistical Institute, energy, and ocean development. Bangalore). These institutions produce a good 3. The collection in the open amount of literature on almost all access digital repositories is branches of knowledge. Some of smaller and the growth rate

Subject

Multidisciplinary these institutions, like the Indian is slower. The collection in Multidisciplinary Institute of Science, Bangalore; the most of the repositories is Indian Institute of Management, less than 2,000. Kozhikode; the Indian Statistical 4. All the digital repositories Institute, Bangalore; the Indian in India contain documents Institute of Technology, Delhi; the in English, but a few National Institute of Technology, contain collections in Hindi and Kannada as well. Rourkela; the National Aerospace 5. The digital repositories

Website

http://library.isibang. ac.in:8080/dspace Laboratories, Bangalore; the http://drs.nio.org/ contain both published and National Chemical Laboratory, unpublished documents, Pune; the Information and like articles, seminar Library Network (INFLIBNET), proceedings, conference Ahmedabad; the National Institute papers, theses, dissertations, of Oceanography, Goa; the Raman research reports, books, etc. Research Institute, Bangalore; Some special materials, like

Organisation

Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore

National Institute of etc., have established open access learning objects, multimedia oceanography, India Institutional Repositories (IRs) that documents and patents, disseminate the research outputs are also found in some of the respective institutions. of the open access digital Sometimes, these are self-archived. repositories. Otherwise, the administrator of 6. A few document type- the repositories collects research specific institutional repositories also exist, documents from different sources where scholars of different

Name

Digital library at Indian Statistical Institute, Bangalore

DRS at National Institute of and submits the documents to the Oceanography (BRS@nio)

subjects can contribute their Access Digital Repositories in India 1: Selected Open Table

18 Volume 2 Issue 1, March 2007 KnowGenesis International Journal for Technical Communication (IJTC) E-mail Alerts Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes OAI-PMH Compliant Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Software Used DSpace DSpace DSpace DSpace GNU EPrints DSpace DSpace Greenstone DSpace GNU EPrints DSpace No. of Items 175 357 428 318 115 1,856 191 3,000 8,867 1,196 170 257 Documents available Publications; Conferences; Theses; Unpublished Theses; Patents; Project reports Special; Conferences; Learning objects Publications; Conference papers; Preprints; Conference papers; Books; Patents Convocation addresses; Faculty research publications Theses and Dissertations Theses and Dissertations Theses and Dissertations Theses; Publications: Multimedia: Special Preprints: Unpublished Publications; Conference papers; Theses; Multimedia Language English English English; Hindi English English English English English English English English English; Hindi; Kannada Subject Business & Economics Chemistry & chemical technology Multidisciplinary General Sciences Multidisciplinary Science & Technology Multidisciplinary Science & Technology Science & Technology Physics & Astronomy Multidisciplinary Library & Information Science Website http://DSpace.iimk.ac.in http://dspace.ncl.res.in http://dspace.inflibnet.ac.in http://dspace.nitrkl.ac.in/ dspace http://eprints.du.ac.in http://eprint.iitd.ac.in/ dspace http://etd.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/ http://www.library.iitb.ac http://library.iitk. ac.in:8080/examples/thesis/ index.html http://eprints.iiap.res.in http://eprints.iimk.ac.in https://drtc.isibang.ac.in Organisation Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode National Chemical Laboratory , Pune Information and Library Network, India National Institute of Technology, Rourkela University of Delhi Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore Indian Institute of Management Khozhikode Documentation Research Training Centre, Bangalore Name DSpace at Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (dspace@IIMK) DSpace at National Chemical Laboratory (dspace@NCL) DSpace@INFLIBNET DSpace @NITR DU Archive EPrints@IIT Delhi ETD at IISc ETD@IIT Bombay ETD@IIT Kanpur Indian Institute of Astrophysics Repository (dspace@IIA) Indian Institute of Management Khozhikode Scholarship Repository (EPrints@IIMK) LDL: Librarians Digital Library

KnowGenesis International Journal for Technical Communication (IJTC) Volume 2 Issue 1, March 2007 19 documents based Conclusion on type. ETD@ The open access digital repositories IIT Bombay is a have become platforms for the good example of sharing of knowledge because they a document type provide access to research documents E-mail Alerts Yes Yes No No Yes repository where and other learning materials free scholars can deposit of cost. These repositories have their theses and overcome the financial, geographical, dissertations. institutional, and political boundaries OAI-PMH Compliant Yes Yes Yes Yes No 7. As for software, and barriers of permission, time, and most repositories space between user and information. use open source To keep the repositories fruitful, information their collections should be updated

Software Used GNU EPrints GNU EPrints GNU EPrints GNU EPrints DSpace repository software constantly, and their use should be like DSpace, increased through postings on list Greenstone Digital servers, web search engines, metadata

No. of Items 1,781 88 5,669 1,277 1,405 Library Software, harvesting services, and through and GNU EPrints, publicity campaigns. Indians should whereas some realize the importance of information repositories like repositories in the modern digital ETD@IIT Kanpur era. They must take steps to develop are not using any IR the existing ones in all spheres, and Documents available Publications; Conference papers; Theses; Multimedia; Patents; Publications; Conference papers; Theses; Unpublished; Books; Patents Publications; References; Conference papers; Books; Patents; Special Publications Post prints; Unpublished; Learning objects software. establish new ones in all areas of the 8. Most of the open country. access digital

Language English English English English English repositories use OAI-PMH (protocol References British Library’s Strategy 2005-2008 Glossary. for metadata Available online at: www.bl.uk/about/strategic/ harvesting), so glossary.html. Retrieved on October 10, 2006. that these can be accessed using Chan, Leslie (2004). Supporting and Enhancing Scholarship in the Digital Age: The Role of Open- Subject Science and Technology Information and Communication Technology General Sciences Health & Medicine Physics & Astronomy search tools like Access Institutional Repositories. Canadian Journal search engines on of Communication, vol. 24(3). the Web, whereas a few don’t use Directory of Open Access Repositories. Available it but provide online at: http://www.opendoar.org. Retrieved on October 15, 2006. direct access to their documents Open Access Overview. Available online at: http:// through their www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm. respective websites Retrieved on October 10, 2006. Website http://nal..ir.nal..res.in http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in/ http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in http://openmed.nic.in http://dspace.rri.res.in/ dspace (e.g. EPrints@IIT Rajasekhar, T.B. (2003). Improving the visibility of Delhi). Indian research: an institutional, open access publishing 9. Most of the open model. In: Indo-US Workshop on Open Digital access digital Libraries and Interoperability, June 23-25, 2003. repositories Timeline of the Open Access Movement. Available provide e-mail online at: alerts to registered http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/ users when a timeline.htm. Retrieved on January 2, 2007. Organisation Information Centre for Aerospace Science and Technology, India One World South Asia Open Archive Initiative (OWSA), India Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore National Information Centre, India Roman Research Institute, India new document is added to the repository, but in some repositories, this facility is not available. Name National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL Repository) One World South Asia Open Archive Initiative Open access Repository of IISC research publications (EPrints@IISC) Open MED@NIC RRI Digital repository

20 Volume 2 Issue 1, March 2007 KnowGenesis International Journal for Technical Communication (IJTC)