Content in, content out: the dual roles of the reference librarian in institutional repositories

Purpose The development of institutional repositories has typically involved administrative and technical staff from libraries and campuses, with little input from reference librarians and subject specialists. Reference librarians have vital roles to play in helping to recruit authors to submit their content to institutional repositories, as well as in educating users to search such repositories effectively and retrieve the scholarly content from them. Aims to investigate these roles. Design/methodology/approach Describes how the University of Oregon Libraries built its institutional repository, promoted and marketed it, and developed partnerships within the library and across the campus using the expertise of reference/subject librarians. Findings At many institutions, institutional repository development has relied heavily on technical and administrative staff. Reference/subject librarians have not played as active a role as they can and should. Because reference librarians are often also subject specialists with liaison responsibilities to specific disciplines, their knowledge of the specialized research needs and scholarly communication patterns of the different disciplines can inform every step of the institutional repository's growth. Originality/value Experience at the University of Oregon demonstrates the efficacy of involving reference librarians in the design and development of an institutional repository from the beginning. The experience that reference librarians have in searching a wide array of databases enables them to provide a useful perspective on the design of effective search interfaces for institutional repositories.