Library Boy: New OCLC Report on Sustainability of Disciplinary Repositories

OCLC, the international library service and research organization based in Dublin, Ohio, has released a new report entitled Lasting Impact: Sustainability of Disciplinary Repositories:

"Librarians need to be familiar with the evolving aspects of scholarly communication and the changing scholarly record. One component of that is the role of repositories. It’s crucial for anyone working in a research library to understand the repository landscape, both to advise researchers on where to look for information and how to disseminate their own research articles. Librarians should appreciate the nature of the leading disciplinary repositories and have a sense of their motivations, their scope, and how they operate. Before getting involved with a disciplinary repository, they should be familiar with the risks and opportunities in depending on the repository and, most importantly, they need to know if the repository has a sustainable model. For a library considering starting a disciplinary repository or taking on the operation of an existing one, these considerations are essential."

The report profiles 7 subject-based research repositories and examines issues such as sustainability, funding models, factors that contribute to a repository's success, and how librarians can support researchers in accessing and disseminating research information. The 7 repositories described in the report are: