Hitting the Ground Running: Building New Zealand's First Publicly Available Institutional Repository

A fully functional and publicly available, digital institutional repository (IR) in the space of just ten days? The technology was available, the time was right, the team was right and technical assistance from colleagues in Australia was on hand a mere cyber call away. This paper reports on how we were able to “hit the ground running” in building an open access IR in such a short space of time. What has taken our breath away is not so much the speed of the process, but the scale of responsiveness from the Internet community. Consequently, we also consider the research impact of more than 18,000 downloads from eighty countries, less than three months into the project! Introduction Digital institutional repositories have become a hot topic over the last two years, and many institutions around the world are now considering or actively working towards implementing them. The University of Otago is no exception, and has implemented a pilot IR within the School of Business. What is so remarkable about the Otago IR? First, its speed of implementation at minimal cost is certainly worth noting, especially for other institutions that are considering an IR. Second, by going live within ten days of inception, it was able to gain recognition as the first public IR in New Zealand. The repository was announced by Professor Arthur Sale (University of Tasmania), a keynote speaker at the Institutional Repositories Symposium held by the National Library of New Zealand in Wellington on 23 November 2005. Third, the Otago IR has experienced a spectacular hit rate since the day it went live on 17 November 2005. By 31 January, there had been 9,000 downloads from over sixty countries; just over two months later, the number of downloads has doubled and includes visits from eighty countries. This article describes how we built a low cost, fully functional repository in such a short timeframe. We reflect on lessons learned and suggest some best practices for implementing an IR. Our reading and discussion with colleagues, especially in Australia, indicated that an IR would enhance the visibility and impact of our research outputs. The level of interest and responsiveness shown by colleagues in the School 1 We are indebted to our project Research Assistants Monica Ballantine and Jeremy Johnston for their considerable expertise and enthusiasm. Visitors are welcome at http://eprints.otago.ac.nz/.