Lightning talk presented at Research Data Access and Preservation Summit in Atlanta in May 2016.
The talk addressed Carnegie Mellon University Libraries' approach to selecting an institutional repository for publications and all research products and our selection of figshare for Institutions as a complete research repository solution.
Abstract:
When designing a new research repository system, how can one best ensure that a new suite of products and services fit into existing research workflows, solve current pain points and are easily and enthusiastically adopted? This was the task put to an interdisciplinary group in the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries, the Digital Repository Task Force (DRTF), comprised of librarians, developers, research data specialists, scholarly communication specialists, and archivists. This lightning talk will outline the process and findings of this task force as well future directions. First was an assessment of the repository systems used by peer institutions and field leaders and the capabilities of those systems. The committee then created a list of all potential capabilities for a system, including those for archiving and sharing research data, organizing ongoing collaborative research projects and data sets, posting working papers and final publications, and producing a snapshot of research outputs of campus by discipline, researcher, or funding. This list of capabilities was enhanced by adding specific use cases to each item including comments collected from faculty and other offices on campus. After gathering more details about the potential usefulness and ease of implementation for each capability, these items were ranked by priority: essential, useful, potential, bonus. The DRTF will work in the future with a faculty advisory panel comprised of faculty from each academic division of the university and with the Research Data Management Steering Committee, comprised of stakeholders from the offices of research, computing services, university libraries, and researchers. They will also incorporate the results of an ongoing research study by a library faculty member surveying faculty priorities for a research repository. The DRTF will oversee the development and launch of the repository system and will provide guidance on adapting the system as campus needs change.