Executive Summary on the Report of the MRP Completed
MRP Topic:
Design and Development of Institutional Repository for Assam University
Project Designation: Principal Investigator
Introduction:
The creation of new knowledge through the practices of research and scholarship is a core activity of the university community and it lies in the heart of every university’s mission. Research and scholarship created within a university community should be disseminated on a large scale to the global world for building the capacity of the institutional research and to make a contribution in the global research outputs. Dissemination of scholarly research output is thus a core responsibility of a university. Institutional Repository improves the visibility of a university globally by capturing, organizing, preserving, and disseminating the institutional knowledge assets to the scholarly world.
Assam University has been producing intellectual assets / scholarly outputs through different research studies or projects since its inception. In planning for the implementation of the Institutional Repository at Assam University, we can discover significant change and developments on the research and academic scene in the area of scholarly communication showing our intellectual assets to the rest part of the world. But, till the date when the project proposal was initiated, Assam University did not develop any mechanism like Institutional Repository for managing its intellectual assets. A project proposal was prepared and submitted to University Grants Commission (UGC) aiming at which was one of the proven mechanisms adopted by many academic institutions in India and abroad. The project proposal was approved and sanctioned vide Letter No. F. No. – 5-375/2013 (HRP), dated 14th March 2013 with a grant of Rs. 6,13,600/- (Rupees Six Lakhs Thirteen Thousand Six Hundred) for a period of two years.
Objectives of the Study:
The main objective of the study was to ascertain and organize scholarly/intellectual outputs and to develop an Institutional Repository for Assam University.
The study has the following other objectives:
- • To gather information on individual’s scholarly outputs
• To ascertain the departmental literary activities
• To understand the impact factor and the quality of research publications
• To obtain increased worldwide visibility of the scholars of Assam University with a public domain through the Internet
• To provide a long-term solution for Assam University of Scholarly / Intellectual Assets
• To help the academic community to improve online teaching both on-campus and via the net.
Chapterisation of the Final Report Submitted:
The Final Report contains eight chapters. A brief account of each of the chapters has been presented below:
Chapter 1 is dealt with the background of the study, origin of the research problem, inter-disciplinary relevance, significance of the study, international status, national status, and objectives of the project study.
Chapter 2 presents the literature review of the national level and international levels.
Chapter 3 is dealt with the methodology and methods used for the study. It discusses the core issues, functional components; year-wise plan of works and targets achieved; financial assistance proposed and received.
Chapter 4 discusses the overview of the Institutional Repository with its concept and meaning. It explains the components, benefits of having an IR, legal considerations, standards, sustainability, collaboration, and key factors for success in building IR.
Chapter 5 is dealt with the phases of project implementation. The chapter divides the phases into three distinct phases: i) Software Selection Phase, ii) Selection of Hardware and Other Infrastructure and iii) Manpower Selection. It presents the list of some Open Source Digital Library Softwares and examples of national and international level university-based IRs. It mentions the factors in hardware selection for the project implementation. This chapter explains the eight skills required for the selection of manpower for IR project implementation.
Chapter 6 describes the steps-by-steps process for designing of Institutional Repository at Assam university. It presents the steps for installation of the Operating System i.e., CentOS 6, Java (JDK), Apache Tom Cat, Apache Maven, Apache Ant, PostgreSQL, and finally installation of DSpace.
Chapter 7 is dealt with the findings of the project study, issues, and challenges for creating IR at Assam University. The chapter discusses the issues like inadequate funding, lack of awareness about open access IR, inadequate ICT infrastructure, copyright, and technical barriers.
Chapter 8 presents the concluding remarks on the IR project implementation at Assam University with grants received from UGC.
The last part of the Report contains References in APA Citation Style, Annexures from I to V, Index, and Publications.
UGC’s Letters:
- Call for Presentation
- UGC’s Approval Order
- Grant Release Order(1st Installment)
- Mid-Term EvaluationÂ
- UGC MRP Settlement Letter