DIGITAL REPOSITORIES SYSTEM FOR SCHOLARLY

COMMUNICATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCES

Che Zainab Hj. Abdullah, Wan Ab. Kadir Wan Dollah, Zulkefli Mohd Yusop and Mohd
Jailani Paiman
Faculty of Information Management
Universiti Teknologi MARA,
Puncak Perdana Campus, Shah Alam

cheza347@salam.uitm.edu.my
wkadir@salam.uitm.edu.my
myzulkefli@gmail.com
jailanipaiman@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Organizations including faculties have been using new technologies to store information in various formats.
Digital Repositories are becoming widely accessible in institutions known as institutional repositories. Digital
Repositories provide members of the faculty community with the ability to add, or self-archive, items that
they have authored into the repository, thereby facilitating instant access to their work. The researchers have
encouraged the lecturers or authors in the faculty to submit their work to help in collection development and
additional reading materials to students and staff. The study focused on the creation of institutional
repositories whereby a digital repository has been created in Faculty of Information Management, UiTM to
capture and preserve intellectual output of the faculty members and at the same time the information can be
accessed worldwide. The study is important to determine how faculties especially Faculty of Information
Management, UiTM are exploiting the latest information and communication technologies to improve the
information services to the faculty members and the academic community. The findings indicate: (1) Various
formats of academic work from lecturers have been created (2) Most of the lecturers have written academic
papers (3) Majority of the writings from senior lecturers. Recommendations are made on the need to enlarge
the collections in the institutional repository and cooperation with other faculties. The main contribution of
this research in the creation of a DR is the Faculty of Information Management, UiTM.

Keywords: Digital repository, e-repository, institutional repository, open-source

1. INTRODUCTION

New technologies have influenced all spheres of human activity and the scholarly communication landscape
is evolving. In this era of knowledge, the Internet has become an essential medium for information
exchange. Researchers increasingly publish their research findings in subject-specific and web-based
archives for wider and faster dissemination. Digital repositories (DRs) offer a convenient infrastructure
through which to store, manage and reuse digital materials. They can be used by a variety of communities,
may carry out many different functions and can take many forms. Digital repositories enable quick, easy,
simultaneous and remote access to deposits. It also minimizes physical storage requirements whilst
increasing the potential mass of deposits.

1.1 Defining the digital environment

Digital repositories are also commonly referred as “institutional repositories” or “digital archives”.
According to Sutradhar (2006), digital repositories enhance the professional visibility of the faculty,
and raises the prestige of the institution. It also provides a global platform for local research and hence
improved visibility. Apart from this, DR preserves and provides long-term access to the scholar’s
research output and also serves as resources for supporting classroom teaching. As noted by Scholarly
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 Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), Digital repositories (DRs) are becoming a
major component of the evolving structures of scholarly communication. In addition to authors, who
gain visibility, and users, who find information more easily, the potential benefits of DR extend to
institutions, which increase their research profile, and funders, who see wider dissemination of research
output.
Drake (2004) emphasized that for universities, repositories are marketing tools communicating
capabilities and quality by showcasing faculty and student research, public services projects, and other
activities and collections. DR in universities may includes preprints and post prints of journal articles,
technical reports, whites papers, research data, theses, dissertations, work in progress, important print
and image collections, teaching and learning materials, and materials documenting the history of the
institution.
In addition to it, DRs provide services to faculty, researches, and administrators who want to
archive research, historic, and creative materials. Drake in his article also mentioned that while the main
purposes of institutional repositories are to bring together and preserve the intellectual output of a
laboratory, department, university, or other entity, the incentives and commitments to change the
process of scholarly communication have also begun serving as strong motivators.
Computers have been ubiquitous on campuses since the late 1980s. Students and faculty are
comfortable with the power of online communication. Faculty teachers and researchers want to archive
their own materials and have them available on personal or institutional Web sites, these articles, along
with the development of the Internet and more powerful search engines, have enabled people think in
practical terms about the establishment of central facilities for storing, archiving, preserving, and
making scholarly and artistic materials available. Repositories may be limited to one field, one
department, one institution, or a consortium of several sharing while expanding access to digital
materials.

1.2 Statement of Problem

The amount of information produced in the world is increasing every year. Trends imply that
technology evolution is leading to information explosion. The challenges of managing this becomes
more difficult and this can lead to information overload or information fatigue.
This condition results from having a rapid rate of growth in the amount of information available
around us. Information professionals therefore, need to develop skills for managing this information
overload. Managing this load can be a tough challenge. It involves securing, managing and archiving
the data in such a way that appropriate users have access to it and use the data for making more
informed decisions.
Information life cycle management (ILM) is one of the solutions for managing information
overload. It is a combination of data management capabilities of the database server with appropriate
storage technology. Organizations that manage large volumes of information (journal articles, seminar
papers, dissertations, theses, research projects, and other kind of printed and non printed forms require
self-managing databases.
In relation to this, a group of researchers, which consists of 4 researchers design, develop, analyze,
implement and manage a database namely as Digital Repository for Social Science Publications
(DRSS) which is aimed to repost file and document produced and reside around the faculty community
as one of the solution for content management, information dissemination and knowledge sharing. It is
our research objectives to provide access to information from full text references from entry stored in a
database system (DRSS).

1.3 Study Objectives

1. To recommend the creation of DR in the Faculty of Information Management, Universiti
Teknologi Mara
2. To determine how digital repositories support learning process
3. To identify the perceived needs of digital repositories in higher learning institution.
4. To identify the problem pertaining to introducing the digital repositories
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 5. To investigate how DRs helps the faculty members in their teaching
6. To identify how DRs can support excellent research among faculty members.

1.4 Significance of Study

The principal significance of this research is to create a digital repositories to be used by faculty
members of Faculty of Information Management and researchers in Universiti Teknologi MARA.
The study also contributes in terms of filling gap to literature pertaining to digital repositories in
Malaysia. This study is regarded as an attempt to find solution and way to develop digital repositories in
academic institution and also setting the agenda for the future digital repositories in this country.
Malaysian higher educational institutions are striving to become world-class universities. Many
Malaysian universities are targeting to be ranked among the foremost in the world based on
international standards of academic excellence. In accomplishing the university’s quest to be world-
class, there should be conductive teaching, learning and research environment. Digital repositories
provide the basis of references and information sources that the researchers and academicians could rely
on.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

Related research literature was collected and examined from on-line databases such as Library and
Information Science Abstracts (LISA), Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), ProQuest,
Emerald, INFOTRAC, Lib Lit and Wilson. Sources from Internet that were pertinent to the research were
also reviewed.
In searching for the literature, keywords such as digital repository, institutional repository and
repositories were used. Other related terms including digital libraries, electronic services, online services
and social sciences were also used to support the research.
The findings from the literature are summarized in the following sections:
1. The concepts of Institutional Repositories
2. Benefits of Institutional Repositories
3. Examples of Institutional Repositories
4. Issue and challenges

2.1 Defining the concept of institutional repositories (IRs)

The definition of “institutional repository” has evolved in the past several years. For the purposes of
analysis, Crow (2002) used the basic definition that an IR is a digital collection that captures and
preserves the intellectual output of an institution whether it represents a single or multi-university
community. Note that this definition does not define purpose or provenance.
However, while the definition put forth by the Association of Research Libraries requires that the
content be scholarly, we chose to acknowledge that IRs may have a wider range of content which could
include documents that record the “intellectual life of the institution” and “experimental and
observational data” from the institution as well as the traditional intellectual works (Lynch, 2003).
For universities, repositories are marketing tools communicating capabilities and quality by
showcasing faculty and student research, public service projects, and other activities and collections.
Repositories in universities may include preprints and postprints of journal articles, technical reports,
white papers, research data, theses, dissertations, work in progress, important print and image
collections, teaching and learning materials, and materials documenting the history of the institution.
(Drake, 2004)

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 2.2 Benefits of IRs

According to Drake (2004), repositories provide services to faculty, researchers, and administrators
who want to archive research, historic, and creative materials. The open access and open archives
movement, the need for changes in scholarly communication to remove barriers to access, and the
increasing awareness that universities and research institutions are losing valuable digital and print
materials have begun driving the establishment of institutional repositories. Using open archive models
(http://www.openarchives.org), established metadata standards, and digital rights management,
important new information sources are seeing the light of day and becoming more generally available.
While the main purposes of institutional repositories are to bring together and preserve the
intellectual output of a laboratory, department, university, or other entity, the incentives and
commitments to change the process of scholarly communication have also begun serving as strong
motivators. Computers have been ubiquitous on campuses since the late 1980s. Students and faculty are
comfortable with the power of online communication. Faculty teachers and researchers want to archive
their own materials and have them available on personal or institutional Web sites, these articles, along
with the development of the Internet and more powerful search engines, have enabled people to think in
practical terms about the establishment of central facilities for storing, archiving, preserving, and
making scholarly and artistic materials available.
Repositories may be limited to one field, one department, one institution, or a consortium of several
institutions. Collaboration through a consortium reduces costs for each member through resource
sharing while expanding access to digital materials. Institutional Repositories can provide an
immediate and valuable complement to the existing scholarly publishing model, while stimulating
innovation in a new disaggregated publishing structure that will evolve and improve over time. Further,
they build on a growing grassroots faculty practice of self-posting research online. While institutional
repositories necessitate that libraries--as their logical administrative proponents--facilitate development
of university intellectual property policies, encourage faculty authors to retain the right to self-archive,
and broaden both faculty and administration perspectives on these issues, they can be implemented
without radically altering the status quo. Moreover, they can be introduced by reallocating existing
resources, usually without extensive technical development. (Singarella, 2005)

2.3 Examples of institutional repositories

Drake (2004), The Dspace repository project [http://dspace.org] at MIT has received extensive
coverage in the news and literature. The Dspace Web page describes the project as "a groundbreaking
digital institutional repository that captures, stores, indexes, preserves, and redistributes the intellectual
output of a university's research faculty in digital formats"
[http://dspace.org/introduction/index.html]. The MIT repository contains a variety of research
materials deposited in accordance with the policies developed by departments and research units at
MIT.
Dspace developed open source software with a grant from Hewlett Packard and created a federation
of universities to work collaboratively on the project. The Federation includes Cambridge University,
Columbia, Cornell, MIT, Ohio State, University of Rochester, University of Toronto, and the
University of Washington. Research institutions worldwide may acquire the Dspace software at no cost
and any institution can adapt it to their own needs.

3. METHODOLOGY

In general, research design provides a framework for the collection and analysis of data. Bryman (2004)
noted that a choice of research design reflects decision about the priority being given to a range of
dimensions of the research process.
In this research, the researcher adopted the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC), that is any
logical process used by a systems analyst to develop an information system, including requirements,
validation, training, and user ownership. An SDLC should result in a high quality system that meets or
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 exceeds customer expectations, within time and cost estimates, works effectively and efficiently in the
current and planned ICT infrastructure, and is cheap to maintain and cost effective to enhance.

Figure 1: DRSS System Features

DRSS system has simple basic features to retrieve the information resources electronically.
To facilitate the users searching for resources, DRSS has provided several of searching
techniques such as simple search, advanced search, keyword search and browse items by
location. The simple search query uses DC title and author/ creator elements to retrieve the
complete metadata resources. It is a basic technique to search for information in DRSS and
reaching the actual resources.
The advanced search query uses a combination search criteria that has Boolean search
capability to retrieve more precise searching results. It is a powerful and fast combination
query done by the DRSS search engine. The search also can limit the query by specifying the
range of publication years to get more specific results. DRSS also provides keyword search
query which enable the indexed keywords in DC elements are searchable to display more
relevant resources.
In order to facilitate the users DRSS also provided a browsing feature which specifying the
locations of the resources availability. It assists the users to identify the locations of the theses,
journal articles, research reports, seminar and conference papers by listing the faculty names
and its current total collection.
Users can view the complete metadata and abstract to get an overview of the resources.
DRSS also provides the users with a 24 pages theses, journal articles, research reports, seminar
and conference papers access in PDF format before viewing the full-text (PDF) version of
theses, journal articles, research reports, seminar & conference papers. Normally a 24 pages
theses, journal articles, research reports, seminar & conference papers size is smaller and faster
to download and view.

4. RESULT AND DISCUSSIONS

DRSS has established for almost two years and having excellent achievements in
supporting the research activities for the faculty. There have been many innovations over the
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 existing information retrieval systems nowadays. Now it is time to enhance the DRSS system
features in terms of hardware, software, concept, access modes, searching capability,
interfaces, and integration with other systems.
The hardware should be upgraded to higher specifications for faster access, reliability,
robust and stable. The software has to be upgraded to the latest version to prevent bugs,
unauthorized access and external attacks as well as compatibility with current operating system
software. The concept should be revised to accommodate the current information requirements
and to adapt with the new concept of managing metadata. The access modes have to be variety
including accessing via wireless broadband and mobile environment such as EDGE and 3G
technologies.
Searching capability should be redesigned to include the taxonomy features to facilitate the
access and browsing of resources comprehensively. System interfaces have to be redesigned to
more user-friendly looks and navigations that speed-up the retrieval of information. Integration
with other system software should be researched and deployed such as integration with e-
commerce software, knowledge management system, and artificial intelligence.

5. CONCLUSIONS

DRSS is one of the solutions to centralize repository of faculty publications collection. By having such
database, it will facilitate access to the resources within university community. Organization which has
intention to provide knowledge sharing or to practice knowledge management among the community
should implement DRSS as it’s facilitates content management and information dissemination. DRSS is
not only applicable for the faculty and faculty member but it also benefits students, lecturers,
administrators, ministry and the nation as a whole.. We can imagine the impact of having a central
repository that can serve the university communities in order to produce a quality research and to
support teaching and learning as a whole. We also can discover the quality researches done by the
scholars who brought significant impact to the nation growths and progresses. Lastly we can turn DRSS
becoming a central repository to the world as a reference site for the Malaysian heritage

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thanks to Allah the Almighty who through His mercy has guided us in completing this research
project. We would like to record our sincere appreciation to Associate Professor Dr. Adnan Jamaludin,
Associate Professor Dr. Laili Hashim and other members of the Faculty of Information Management,
Universiti Teknologi MARA for their support and advice.
Credit is due to the academic staff in the Faculty of Information Management, UiTM who have
given input of their writings. Without their cooperation, the study would not have been possible. We are
indebted to Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS),
Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education for the research grant. We would like to extend our most
heartfelt gratitude to our spouses and families for their moral support. Finally, thank you to all others
for their assistance and encouragement.

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