Exposing Research Content: Selecting a Tribe & Keeping It Free!

This session features two independent case studies occurring within the library at Queen’s University Belfast. The goal of both activities has been the exposure of research content—assisting online users to access content relevant to their research and free at the point of access. One project choose open-source software; the second selected a subscription model. Speakers share the details for both, the considerations that led to these decisions, how the technical infrastructure for these activities shaped outcomes, and the implications. Hear about university research in the form of e-theses and datasets using an existing commercial repository current research information system called PURE (commercial/subscription model), in which the innate discoverability of this content improved through metadata enrichment, but also some content was restricted by the limitations and options set out by the system. Learn about the move to born-digital official publications, creating a bespoke open access repository using DSpace. Collaboration was central to the delivery of legal deposit requirements of libraries, under contract, from where records are shared through data to transform from DC to MARC. The sustainability is centered around in-house expertise and third-party cooperation, driven by research need and the public good, and all at no financial cost. Both case studies, both open access, reference metadata standards in a repository context. Speakers highlight recommendations beyond the specifics of these projects, drawing upon the sustainability of repositories, collaborative and cooperative endeavors, and, crucially, the education/careers of library staff and allied professionals who, increasingly, cannot escape metadata, but must find the means to be excited by it.