OPEN ACCESS AND INSTITUTIONAL
REPOSITORIES IN KENYA
BYROSEMARY OTANDOE-RESOURCES LIBRARIANUNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI LIBRARY
Why open access?
For long term preservation, organization and access or distribution of scholarly work to accelerate research and enhance progress in science and development.
Ways of providing Open Access1. OA Journals – Peer reviewed2. OA Repositories – Regional or
Institutional Repositories Institutional Repositories? - Set of
services that a university offer to the members of its community for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community members.
WHY IR IN ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS IN KENYA? To provide for an effective system to
disseminate and access research information, digitize and preserve digital content that is in danger of extinction.
Provide avenue for scholars and researchers to publish their intellectual and scholarly works
Why IR IN KENYA? (Cont.)
Adding to Inst./faculty prestige through showcasing their academic research
Gives authors and their works immeasurable publicity and increased visibility
Why IR IN KENYA?
To create mechanism for sharing information with other institutions in Kenya and beyond. Do we want to participate in our country’s development? – share scientific findings
Others are sharing why not us?
Others are sharing!
Opendoar – http://www.opendoar.org/
AJOL – African Journal Online - http://ajol.info/
OAISTER – Digitised material http://oaister.worldcat.org/
WorldWideScience.org – International scientific databases - http://worldwidescience.org/
Biomed Central: http://www.biomedcentral.com/
WHO publications - http://www.who.int/en/
NDLTD – Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations - http://www.ndltd.org/find
BioOne.org - sciences. http://www.bioone.org/
Open J- Gate - http://www.openj-gate.org/Footer/About.aspx
Others are sharing!
Plosone – peer-reviewed science publications http://www.plosone.org/static/guidelines.action
Open Humanities Press - http://openhumanitiespress.org/index.html
Oxford Open Access Journals - http://www.oxfordjournals.org/oxfordopen/
Kenya Law Reports - http://www.kenyalaw.org/update/index.php
African Digital Library – free for Africa http://www.africaeducation.org/adl/
OER sites - OERAfrica – Established by SA Inst. - http://www.oerafrica.org/Home/tabid/36/Default.aspx
Lawyers in Africa http://www.apkn.org/dspace/xmlui/
KLISC INSTITUTIONS AND IR PROJECTS
Concept of IR Introduced earlier (ILRI, Moi)
2008, 2009,2010- workshops on Open Access and free software that can be used for IR e.g. DSpace and Greenstone software.
Follow-up visits and workshops to enhance skills and to sensitize staff on IR.
KLISC INSTITUTIONS AND IR PROJECTS (Cont.) Currently, most inst. are in the
development stage, i.e. Installation Customization Submission stage
KLISC INSTITUTIONS AND IR PROJECTS (Cont.)
Involving key stakeholders e.g. university administrators, policy makers, students, academic staff etc
Policy issues Sensitization and training
Identified KLISC institutions implementing IR (Mostly full text
items) ILRI (Online)• KARI (Online)• University of Nairobi (60 items - LAN)• Kenyatta University (Past Papers)• College of Insurance (30 items)• KMFRI (Advanced stage – 400 items)• The Kenya Polytechnic University College (Project
collapsed)• Kabarak (Advanced stage – (3000 items)• Baraton (Development stage - customization)• Agha Khan University (Development stage)
Identified Institutions (Cont.)
• Strathmore (Advanced stage – LAN/WAN)• Marist International (55 items)• Moi (Advanced stage – LAN)• KCA (Initial stage – Customization and policy issues)• JKUAT (Initial stage – Policy Issues)• KEMRI (full-text)• Egerton (Initial – Policy issues)• Maseno University (Initial-customization, Policy issues)• Daystar (Initial – Policy Issues)• St. Paul university (Initial – customization, policy issues)
KLISC Institutions Implementing IR
31%
69%
KLISC InstitutionsImplementing IR
KLISC Institutions not yetimplementing IR
Choice of software (Greenstone/DSpace)
52%32%
16%
Dspace
Greenstone
Both
Type of Content/collections Submitted to IRs in Kenya
Audio and video files, films and images of distinguished staff, visitors, monuments, and buildings.
Conferment of Honorary Degrees Presentations/speeches from
distinguished guests.
Type of Content/collections (Cont.)
Book chapters and Newspaper articles
Technical reports, theses and dissertations, gray literature, teaching modules, manuals and guides.
Type of Content/collections (Cont.) Television broadcasts/interviews Research articles, workshop
materials Working papers and conference
proceedings
Level of access
Allowed to search, access and download full text, bibliographic and abstracts.
16%
84%
On WAN
On LAN
Sample of Screen-shot of IR homepage
Challenges
ICT infrastructure Inadequate staff – need for adequate staff to
run the project i.e. full time administrator, ICT person, Digitization expert
Policy Issues (Expert guidance on copyright issues)
Promotion – concept is foreign (Convincing faculties to contribute in the development of the project – faculty adoption disappointing)
Future plans For KLISC
Follow-up workshops and visits Follow-up visits, workshops and
training to sensitize academic staff and researchers on the need for IR and sharing of information.
Sustainability (Proposal for budget for sustainability)
Future plans
Deal with licensing, privacy issues and Copyright issues (Develop IR policies)
Suggestion - government and funding bodies to mandate their funded researchers to deposit a copy of the articles in their IR.
Deal with staffing and training. Raising awareness – aggressive marketing to
solicit content by collaborating with faculties to build the repository.
Future Plans(Cont.)
Launching IRs – ILRI and KARI, the only IR that is alive on the web; Strathmore, UoN on LAN but launching soon; others in the development stage
Training trainers for Kenyan institutions – have local experts in the two software to support the upcoming institutions.
Soliciting for funds and a budget for sustainability of the IR projects.
Future plans
Activation of full-text access to users. Reach other institutions that have interest
to establish IR (Both government and private institutions)
Follow-up visits to enhance skills and provide additional support.
Increase collections and provide access via the WAN (Open Access )
CONCLUSION.
Scientific findings do not belong to a country but to the whole world
Thank you!