IR system and features: study of Indian scenario

Purpose: The main goal was to study issues concerning IR software/system involved in developing and managing an institutional repository. Methodology: For the present study survey research method was found to be most suitable. The data collection tool applied for the study was web questionnaire, which was created with the help of software provided by surveymonkey.com. Findings: It was observed that 79% institutions had implemented DSpace Institutional Repository software package. Respondents assigned top-rank to IR-system feature-End-user interface. It was found that all Institutional Repositories supported Text (HTML, Postscript, PDF, Spreadsheet etc) file formats. Half of the respondents marked bitstream copying as a long-term preservation strategy. Almost all institutional repositories were OAI-PMH compliant. Limitations: Only Indian institutional repositories were studied and the findings were compared with other studies. Originality: In detail IR system/software used in developing repositories were studied which is one of the first study of its kind. The present study discovered existence of 16 functional IRs some of which were not registered in any of the directories such as ROAR, Open DOAR.