(Written by Naomi Wahls, Marcel Broekarts, Armand Guicherit, Alastair Dunning)
Earlier this year, we launched our new version of our TU Delft repository.
Much of the work was a complete update of the code sitting behind the repository. But it also marked a new strategy for what we want the repository to do.
In particular, we needed to deal with confusion amongst our teachers, students and researchers at the university. The old system was set up like this:
This has three significant problems:
- the interface for Pure is designed for librarians, not researchers or students; forcing students and admin staff outside the library to use the Pure interface created problems and inhibited the upload of content
- no one obvious source of truth for TU Delft content, especially research output. The discovery function of the (Pure) research portal overlapped with the discovery function of the repository.
- profiles and organisation pages on the Pure Research Portal displayed more content types than the repository; leading the CRIS to have a broader scope of content beyond strictly research outputs, another source of confusion
Creating clarity in the purpose of the CRIS, and the purpose of the Repository, is key to solving these problems.
We therefore decided on these strategic distinctions between the two systems (which also involves phasing out usage of the Pure Research Portal)
| Role of CRIS | Role of Repository |
| Internal (ie no end users) tool for managing metadata related to core university outputs | Public interface to all outputs from university |
| Only library staff can access, upload and edit | University staff can upload; library metadata staff intervention limited |
| Ensure high-quality metadata | Enable high-quality metadata |
| Driven by university policy | Influenced by library policy, but driven by needs of researchers and students |
Will harvest the following and copy to repository
|
Will accept the following (along side content copied from CRIS)
|
This is summarised in the image below:
This is not done in a day. It will take a couple of years to implement the technical and strategic changes that this implies. We have a new repository in place, but important challenges that lie ahead include:
- building an interface for researchers, teachers and students and staff to upload and manage their content
- taking any popular functionality from the (Pure) Research Portal and integrating that in the repository (for example, moving person profiles and pages about the faculties and departments to the repository)
- broadening the scope of content in the institutional repository and harmonising the disparate metadata from the CRIS system (for example, in regard to aligning staff names)
- communicating to end users and other stakeholders about the new purpose(s) of the systems
But it’s a challenge we are happy to accept!