Creating an Institutional Repository for Legal Materials

The legal research site LLRX.com features a recent article entitled Carpe Diem: Establish an Institutional Repository for Your Organization that explains how to go about creating an institutional repository to collect the intellectual output of an institution, such as a law firm, a law library or a law faculty.

"A law firm associate has prepared a continuing legal education PowerPoint presentation that resides on the hard drive of the associate's laptop. Another associate has served as an expert witness at a U.S. congressional hearing and the testimony is available on the GPO's website. The law firm's annual report from last year is stored on the intranet on the firm's web server. The firm's librarian has delivered an educational presentation at a professional meeting that is available on the web as a podcast. "

"How can all of these diverse items be captured, archived, organized and readily accessible on the web in one location for public access? An institutional repository can provide the perfect solution."

"In our current technological age, most communications and scholarship are born digital and are often scattered across various servers and hard drives. Most of these virtual items are not as carefully archived or preserved as are traditional print publications. Librarians have a unique opportunity to fill a void by taking a leadership role in organizing and preserving digital information. In today's computer dependent environment, our extensive archival expertise is timely and germane."

The article explains what an institutional repository is, the various reasons for creating one, the steps librarians can take to launch one, and offers links to a number of examples from American law schools or law school consortia.