OpenDOAR Now Includes 1000 Repositories

The UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has issued a press release detailing the substantial growth in disciplinary and institutional repositories:

SHERPA has announced that its OpenDOAR directory, which contains an authoritative list of institutional and subject-based repositories, now boasts 1000 repository entries from across the globe.

With each of the repositories listed by the OpenDOAR service having been visited by project staff, the gathered information is both accurate and precise, and contains a quality-controlled list of repository features.

Open access to information has grown rapidly as researchers and scholars increasingly put their work on the web for free in repositories. OpenDOAR aims to create a bridge between the administrators of those repositories and the service providers which "harvest" them.

The typical service provider is a search engine, indexing the material that is held. General Internet searches often bring back too many "junk" results. Information from OpenDOAR enables the search service to provide a more focussed search by selecting repositories that are of direct interest to the user - for example, all Australian repositories, or all repositories that hold conference papers on chemistry. OpenDOAR can also be used by researchers to check if their institution has a repository.

As OpenDOAR forms a major quality target resource for services such as Intute RS (Repository Search) and the Depot, 1000 entries is, say SHERPA staff, a significant step forward in enabling the global virtual repository network to cooperate in new and innovative ways.

SHERPA is based at the University of Nottingham and works on a portfolio of projects related to Open Access and repository development including JULIET and RoMEO.