Open Access Digital Repositories: an Indian Scenario
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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 The results of the study reveal that the repositories contain both published and unpublished documents, like seminar proceedings, conference papers, theses, dissertations, research reports, books, and so on.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 Digital Library Software, and GNU EPrints. 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 Open Archives Initiative, 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