NTU-IR: An Institutional Repository for Nanyang Technological University using DSpace

Abstract

In today's digital networked environment, institutional repositories play a significant role in scholarly communication. This is achieved by offering a practical and cost-effective means of preserving and disseminating an organization's intellectual output. The open and interoperable nature of institutional repositories has received widespread considerations from stakeholders of academic and research institutions world-wide. In addition to digital content preservation and dissemination, an institutional repository reflects an organization’s visibility and reputation. By carefully customizing repository functionality, an institutional repository can cater to a wide variety of information needs in a scholarly environment. This paper discusses the initial experience of designing and implementing an institutional repository at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). The paper discusses institutional repositories and describes repository features associated with content acquisition, interface design, metadata descriptors, and open-access authorization policies. We will discuss why DSpace was chosen for implementing our institutional repository, Nanyang Technological University – Institutional Repository (NTU-IR) and the unique features we plan to implement to meet the needs of our users.