Repository conversations

For a long time, informal communication has played an important role in the process of creating and sharing scholarly knowledge. However, only a handful of initiatives have seriously attempted to exploit the advantages of informal communication processes as a complement to the classic mechanisms of scholarly communication. This article describes the developments that resulted from the DSpace-dev@University of Minho project, particularly, the ones that focus the Commenting add-on: an extension developed for the DSpace platform which aims at providing Institutional Repositories with informal communication capacities. The article also alludes to some ideas that can be taken as the basis for future developments about this subject, namely: to transform the current add-on into a cross-repository and cross-platform service; to make each comment have its own descriptive metadata in order to facilitate its discovery by search engines; and to improve significantly its graphical user interface

RepositóriUM: the implementation of an Institutional Repository

Apresentação efectuada no Congress About Free Software in Libraries, 2, Jaume Fuster Library, Barcelona, 21 Fevereiro 2007.Institutional repositories may be defined as information systems capable of storing, preserving and providing access to the intellectual output produced by the members of a given institution. Within the specific context of a university, an institutional repository may contribute to increase its visibility and significance within academia as it concentrates and promotes the results of research activities carried out in the organisation. Additionally, an institutional repository nourishes the ideal of an “institutional memory” by managing and preserving relevant informational items that otherwise would remain scattered, unattended or inaccessible. Closely related to concept of an institutional repository is the Open Access movement. Open Access means free online access to digital scholarly material – primarily peer-reviewed research papers, but extending also to other digital content that authors wish to make freely available to all users online [1]. Institutional repositories are considered the prime vehicle for the promotion and dissemination of such material. The Documentation Services of the University of Minho (SDUM) [2] have embraced the Open Access initiative with incommensurable passion and engaged in the implementation and promotion of its own institutional repository, self-archiving policies and incentives. These were not only promoted within our institution, but also throughout the world [3-6]. The implementation the University of Minho’s institutional repository (i.e. RepositoriUM) has begun as early as 2003 with the translation and installation of a DSpace instance. The implementation of RepositoriUM was executed within the e-U programme, an initiative of the Portuguese government that aimed at building an infrastructure of services, applications and communication networks to facilitate the production and interchange of knowledge among college students and teachers throughout Portuguese universities. The Documentation Services of the University of Minho have set upon them selves the strategic goal of implementing and populating its repository as a way to promote the university and raise the visibility of the research work carried out in doors. The implementation of the RepositoriUM was preceded by an evaluation of several open-source platforms considered adequate for the implementation of institutional repositories, such as DSpace, Eprints or Fedora. The final choice rested on DSpace due to its friendly interface, engaged community and state-of-the-art technologies (e.g. Java, PostgreSQL, OAI-PMH). DSpace is an open-source software which provides the tools for management of digital assets, and is commonly used as the basis for an institutional repository. It is also intended as a platform for Digital preservation activities. Since its release in 2002, as a product of the HP-MIT Alliance, it has been installed and is in production at over 100 institutions around the globe, from large universities to small higher education colleges and research centres [7]. The implementation process of the RepositoriUM comprised several stages: It begun in July 2003 with the translation into Portuguese of the DSpace platform, followed by its branding, configuration and installation. In a second stage, several graduated PhD and MSc students were invited to deposit their thesis together with an authorisation for publication. The idea behind this initiative was to instigate the population the repository, so that it would contain at least a few hundred items before going public. At this stage, members from six pilot communities from the University of Minho were also invited to contribute with conference papers, journal articles, grey literature and other sorts of material that people felt important to preserve and provide access to. Four of the invited communities kindly accepted the invitation and provided content to the repository. The remaining two, failed to deliver any resources. On November 2003 the repository was made public with a total of 280 documents. To highlight the fact, a ceremony and a press conference were held at the University of Minho. Both events were endorsed by presence of university’s dean. In January 2004 the RepositoriUM was opened to the whole community and a general call for deposit was sent to person in the academy. By the end of 2004 the number of documents in the repository rounded 630. It was felt that the numerous calls for deposit were not producing the expected results. The rate of self-archiving documents was still remarkably low. Of the 630 documents in the repository, only a mere 128 were archived by the authors them-selves. To further stimulate the deposit of documents, the University of Minho has issued an official self-archiving policy that, in its essence, ruled the following three statements: 1. All the teachers and researchers of the University of Minho, these being authors or co-authors of any type of published work, should deposit those resources in the institutional repository of the University of Minho granting permission for dissemination in Open Access; 2. All the organic units of the University of Minho should subscribe or adopt self-archiving policies for their own research output; 3. All authors of thesis and dissertations approved by the University of Minho should authorise their deposit and dissemination through the institutional repository. In order to make sure that the recently created policy was understood and applied by all stakeholders, the dean has defined a financial incentive of 100.000 euros, to be distributed by organic units that during 2005 would deposit the highest number of documents in the RepositoriUM. For the purpose of this evaluation, journal and peer-reviewed conference papers would rate higher than all other types of documents. The results of this initiative were visible immediately. As of April 2005 (a mere 4 months after the introduction of the financial incentive), more than 1200 new documents have been submitted to the repository (983 of these were deposited by the authors them-selves). By the end of 2005 there were 3105 documents in the repository. During 2006 the dean has kindly offered an additional 30.000 euros to encourage self-arching, which resulted in a total of 4900 documents by the end of the year. Together with the evangelisation of Open Access and the endorsement of DSpace as powerful platform for the implementation of institutional repositories, the University of Minho has been involved in the development of add-ons for DSpace. Among the most noteworthy are the following: - Statistics add-on – generates various access and download reports. - Request copy add-on – enables universities to implement Steven Harnad’s self-archiving policy in DSpace repositories. Basically, it works by sending an e-mail to the author of a document requesting a copy of the item that is not publicly available in the repository (i.e. not in Open Access). - Controlled Vocabulary add-on - allows the user to choose from a predefined taxonomy of keywords to describe items of information while they are being submitted to the repository. That same taxonomy is subsequently used to navigate and find items in the repository [8]. - Commenting add-on – allows users to append comments to documents in the repository [9]. - Recommendation add-on – provides recommendations of items related to the document currently being visualised [9]. - Web of communication add-on – draws an interconnected network of all the items in the repository highlighting their interactions at the informal communication level (e.g. comments, downloads, etc.) [9]. In this communication we will describe in detail all of the initiatives previously outlined in this short paper as well as provide a glance on the most noteworthy features of the DSpace platform

Carrots and sticks: some ideas on how to create a successful institutional repository

In this article, we tackle the ubiquitous problems of slow adoption and low deposit rates often seen in recently created institutional repositories. The article begins with a brief description of the implementation process of RepositoriUM, the institutional repository of the University of Minho, and moves on to thoroughly describe the set of activities included in a strategic plan specially designed to undertake the previously outlined problems. Among those activities are the development of an adequate promotional plan, development of value-added services for authors, engagement in the international community and definition of a self-archiving mandate policy. The article also provides some figures on the results of the strategic plan and explores future initiatives being devised to further increase the adoption of the repository.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

Uma década de acesso aberto na UMinho e no mundo

O lançamento do RepositóriUM em 2003 constituiu-se como um projeto pioneiro no domínio dos repositórios institucionais e do movimento do Acesso Aberto ao conhecimento científico. No momento da sua apresentação pública havia decorrido cerca de um ano e meio sobre a disseminação da Declaração de Budapeste (BOAI – que definiu pela primeira vez o Acesso Aberto), precisamente um ano sobre a disponibilização do software em que foi desenvolvido (o DSpace) e apenas um mês sobre a difusão da Declaração de Berlim sobre o Acesso Aberto nas Ciências e Humanidades, que viria a recolher grande adesão nos anos seguintes. Nos dez anos que se seguiram à sua criação, o RepositóriUM consolidou-se como um serviço relevante no contexto da Universidade do Minho, catalisador de desenvolvimentos significativos no panorama nacional e de grande visibilidade e reconhecimento internacional, e simultaneamente o Acesso Aberto conheceu notáveis evoluções em Portugal e no mundo. Este livro, que assinala e celebra o décimo aniversário do RepositóriUM, ilustra estes progressos do Acesso Aberto, em especial através dos repositórios. Reunindo contributos de alguns dos mais ativos protagonistas e impulsionadores dos avanços neste período, Uma Década de Acesso Aberto na UMinho e no Mundo oferece uma ampla panorâmica da evolução e da situação atual do Acesso Aberto, a partir de múltiplas perspetivas e realidades

Estudo sobre a utilização e interoperabilidade entre conteúdos de aprendizagem com diferentes granularidades

Dissertação mestrado em Sistemas de InformaçãoDas novas correntes da aprendizagem centradas na autonomia e ritmo dos alunos, ressalta a importância e a consequente atenção que deve ser dada à qualidade dos conteúdos de aprendizagem. Eles deverão ser estruturados de forma a considerar o perfil de cada aluno, para que este possa promover a construção eficaz do seu conhecimento. Conteúdos de qualidade com estas características são recursos muito dispendiosos. A reutilização e partilha desses recursos torna-se, por isso, numa necessidade premente. Questões como a granularidade e a interoperabilidade dos conteúdos, bem como a compatibilidade das tecnologias e plataformas de suporte, podem pôr em causa tanto a reutilização como a partilha. Daí a atenção que deve ser dada à organização dos conteúdos de aprendizagem em Bibliotecas Digitais e à sua implementação. Este trabalho aborda a problemática da organização de conteúdos de aprendizagem, de forma a promover a sua interoperabilidade, considerando a sua granularidade. São apresentadas características e vários Sistemas de Classificação e de Organização de Conteúdos. Recomendações, Especificações e Normas de compatibilidade são aqui descritas e aprofundadas, em função da sua importância, bem como o papel que cada uma desempenha para a utilização e interoperabilidade dos conteúdos de aprendizagem. É dado algum realce à norma SCORM. São analisadas duas plataformas, DSpace e Easy Education, e mostra-se como podem colaborar para salvaguardar, preservar, disponibilizar e apresentar conteúdos de aprendizagem interactivos, através da Internet. Na parte final, mostra-se como a conjugação de metadados, de sistemas de classificação, de especificações e de normas de compatibilidade contribui para a produção de conteúdos de aprendizagem compatíveis, independentemente das plataformas, desde que estas reconheçam o formato SCORM.Analysing the recent ideas about the autonomous student centred learning process, we can recognize the importance of learning issues quality and consequent attention they should be given. Those issues must be organized according to the students’ profile, so that he can build his own knowledge. Such qualified learning resources are very expensive. The reuse and share of these resources turn therefore a real need. Such issues as content granularity and interoperability, as well as technology and support platforms compatibility, can raise some problems to either contents reuse or share. Hence the attention to be given to learning contents organization inside Digital Libraries and to its implementation. This dissertation focus on the theme of learning contents organization in order to promote their interoperability considering its granularity. It shows contents features, some content classification systems and some contents organization. Recommendations, Specifications and Compatibility Standards are expained and investigated here according to their importance as well as the role of each one to the use and interoperability of learning contents. Some relief is given to the SCORM standard. Two platforms are analysed, DSpace and Easy Education, and it’s shown how they can collaborate to safeguard, preserve, offer and show interactive eLearning contents in the Web. In the last chapters, we show how the junction of metadata, classification and specification systems, besides compatibility standards, contributes to producing compatible learning contents, no matter the platforms since they recognize SCORM

Through the irregular paths of inequality: an analysis of the evolution of socioeconomic inequality in Brazilian states since 1976

Patterns of inequality tend to seriously undermine any attempt at economic growth policy when the inequality is perceived by significant groups of individuals as unjust, inhuman, and insurmountable. One country with a high degree of inequality has been Brazil (usually in the world top-10). Brazil had also witnessed strong dynamics of certain indicators, such as the Gini coefficient, over the last several decades. However, so far, such dynamics have not been properly analyzed, especially considering the significant differences across Brazilian states. For filling that gap, this study used econometric techniques specific to time series and tried to identify structural breaks in the series of Gini coefficients for the 27 Brazilian states since 1976. Results showed a tendency towards an increase in inequality until 1995, followed by a reduction in inequality since 2000. Some cases of Brazilian states were related to the absence of structural breaks, showing a maintenance of historical trends in the evolution of inequality, which raises important policies’ challenges.This paper is financed by National Funds of the FCT–Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology within the project “UIDB/03182/2020”

Desenvolvimento de um protótipo de repositório digital aplicado à Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Lisboa

A presente dissertação visa encontrar soluções práticas para o tratamento e disponibilização de informação em formato digital no contexto das ciências farmacêuticas. Desta forma, procurou-se criar um protótipo de repositório digital de ciências farmacêuticas, aplicado à realidade da Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Lisboa. Numa primeira fase, desenvolveu-se um trabalho de investigação sobre a realidade das bibliotecas e repositórios digitais no contexto universitário, as vantagens, os problemas e os principais desafios que os profissionais da informação e as instituições têm de ultrapassar. Numa segunda fase, abordaram-se as questões da qualidade das fontes de informação disponíveis na Web e fez-se um estudo sobre a qualidade das bibliotecas e repositórios digitais universitários a nível nacional e internacional. Finalmente, tendo por base o trabalho até então desenvolvido, e após a análise de plataformas disponíveis em open source para criação e implementação de repositórios digitais, procedeu-se à escolha da plataforma e construção de um protótipo de repositório digital. Esta construção implicou a instalação e configuração do software adequado e a parametrização do sistema de acordo com as necessidades previamente identificadas.This dissertation’s aim is to find practical solutions for the treatment and offer of information in digital format in the context of pharmaceutical sciences. For this, a prototype of digital repository on Pharmaceutical Sciences, applied to the reality of the “Faculdade de Farmácia da Universidade de Lisboa” was created. Firstly, research work was developed on the reality of digital libraries and digital repositories in a university context and on the advantages, the problems and the main challenges that information professionals and institution have to overcome. Secondly, issues about the quality of the information sources available on the Web were analysed and a study on the quality of university digital libraries and digital repositories at a national and international level was made. Finally, having in mind the work that was developed and after the analysis of different platforms available in open source for the creation and implementation of digital repositories, the choice of a platform and the construction of the prototype of a digital repository was made. This construction involved the installation and configuration of adequate software and the establishment of parameters of the system, according to the previously identified needs

Strategies for digital preservation of information

With the advent of the digital era, the digital information produced has grown exponentially. According to Seamus Ross, digital information is a cultural product [1]. The growing dependency on digital information is changing the way our culture is recorded. There is no longer a strict relation between the logical structure of information, the physical storage support and its interpretation. Internet provided the right environment not only for the thriving of new communities but also for the growth of the information produced by them. Software and hardware have also evolved. Along with them came new capabilities of producing more accurate and space demanding information. One good example is multimedia content, audio and video, but there are many more. This new reality rose an awareness for the need to preserve all this information for future generations to come. Unlike their analogue peers, digital formats require a different effort to maintain as they are exposed to such threats as the deterioration of the medium they are stored in or formats obsolescence. A number of actions must be taken to ensure their long-term access. To address this need, digital repositories have evolved, accommodating now sets of features capable of implementing different strategies for the digital preservation of information. This thesis presents an analysis of the current state of the art open source repository software for the digital preservation of information identifying the five most relevant solutions. From those solutions, we picked the most feature rich and broader user community software, RODA, to which we propose and implement further improvements to an existing preservation strategy: federation. These improvements consist in building into the system an interoperability mechanism capable of allowing RODA to interact with other systems. This improvement is made by implementing a prototype composed by a CMIS server inside the repository, which communicates with client applications through the implementation of the CMIS protocol. We name this prototype RODA OpenCMIS Server, or in short, RODA-OCS. The prototype allows RODA to expose contents stored inside it publicly, under a controlled environment, in an authenticated and secure way. This goal is achieved by integrating our prototype with RODA native permissions system. RODA-OCS not only implements a file browser mechanism for content navigation but also a query engine capable of searching and retrieving contents based on their metadata, either technical or descriptive. Finally, we present a demonstration of the functioning of RODA-OCS. Through the use of a dataset conceived to test the functionalitie