The role of institutional digital repositories to develop scholarly communication

In this electronic publishing age, academic institutions including universities have increasingly recognized that an institutional digital repository is an essential infrastructure of scholarly dissemination. An IR is a digital research archive consisting of accessible collections of scholarly work that represent the intellectual capital of an institution. Digital repositories are widely used as a mechanism for making scholarly works freely accessible on the web. Academic libraries are often involved in the creation and management of institutional repositories that focus on preserving and disseminating the scholarship produced by their institution’s faculty and students. Institutional digital repositories provide institutions an opportunity to establish a prime location that collects and preserves the resources in digital form. Scholars invested demand for the online publishing, networking, and good research are driving the demand for extensive access. The paper explores the development of institutional repositories in academic institutions and their role to develop scholarly communication among academic and research community.