UKOLN International Repository Workshop: Repository Organisation

First Report:

• Aim: to support repository concepts with a common purpose.
  
• To support the professional peer group, with bottom-up demand.
  
• To support interoperability, assuring data quality.
  
• To formulate guidelines, supporting national cooperation, to help recruit new repositories, to enable international interoperability.
  
• The activity can be compared to the international collaboration behind Dublin Core.
  
• The confederation would have a strategic role, providing support outside national boundaries to repository development.
• It would provide a locus for interaction with other communities: researchers, publishers.
  
• It will be driven by improving the scholarly process, and not just by repositories as an aim in themselves.
  

Second Report:

• The group needed to define the nature of the organisation to work towards: finding a common point of departure was difficult.
  
• Need to articulate benefits to stakeholders:
  • a forum for information exchange,
  • promoting repository management as a profession,
  • reflecting community needs,
  • channelling demands for new software.
  
  
• The relations underlying the confederation are in place already, but the types of relations will be worked out tomorrow. The group has to establish evidence of need for the confederation.
  
• The roles of the organisation will be worked through tomorrow: they will involve service to repositories and to researchers.
• The workshop discussants have split into an advisory group, an investigatory group, and visionary group.
  

Third Report:

• The organisation goal is to enhance the scholarly process through a federation of open access repositories.
  
• They will approach funding agencies. The organisation must be independent, bottom-up, funded through membership.
  
• Sustainability, political authority, visibility.
  
• The organisation's core concepts will be formed around stakeholder needs and activities. These are varied; they need:
  • clarity of roles,
  • strong governance,
  • network of expertise,
  • carry through of interopability issues;
  • help in setting up repositories and repository advocacy;
  • certification & quality assurance.
  
  
• Groups identified the contributions they could bring: money, expertise, ambassadors, suitable workflows.
  
• Deliverables & outcomes: e.g. hold meetings, sessions in conferences, make visible the repository manager profession; lobbying, websites, potentially helpdesk.
  
• Governance model: organisational membership, partnership with software providers.
  
• Timeframe: proof of concept to circulate April, formal model of confederation May, letter of request of participation June.