Repositories: What's the target? An ARROW Perspective

The key observation about institutional research repositories is that they are under-used. This paper looks at why take-up has been slow, and what might encourage researchers to use these facilities.

This paper surveys the evolution of practice and rationale for the institutional research repository, looks at existing use studies and opinion surveys of users, and examines ways in which university libraries, the main proponents, have changed their approaches in response to their experience. The experience of Swinburne University of Technology, a partner in the Australian ARROW project, is drawn upon.