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Dykes Library

Digital Collections

Services

About Archie, the KUMC Institutional Repository

What is Archie?

http://archie.kumc.edu

Archie is KUMC's "institutional repository". It's a combination of web technology and archival services provided by Dykes Library and Information Resources for KUMC faculty, staff, students, and partners.

4 Ways You Can Use Archie

  1. Archive and share preprint or post-print versions of your research
  2. Archive and share datasets
  3. Start your own "e-journal":
    Kansas Medical Journal
    Journal of Undergraduate Nursing Writing
  4. Archive events and supplement larger projects:
    Mass and Matter Symposium: Presentations and videos
    Bioterrorism: Video metadata and links in Archie
    Nightingale: Transcripts in Archie

3 Reasons Why You Should Use Archie

  1. IR and Library supported
    Dykes Library and Information Resources staff support, manage, and develop Archie. Library staff also provide training, metadata services, content preparation, and general handholding if needed.
  2. Makes your stuff easily findable on the Web
    Contribution to your institution's repository can increase the visibility and citation impact of the institution’s scholarship. Research impact is no longer solely determined by traditional journals. (OpCit Project, 2007)

    When you store your content in Archie, it is instantly open to the world in a number of ways. Archie provides a number of ways to browse and search content. Content in Archie can also be found through Google and other major search engines. Try it. Of course, you can also restrict access to your collection if necessary.

    Metadata and content can be harvested by other institutions who wish to include it in their own repositories.
    RSS feeds are available for any Community or Collection in Archie.
    Links to your content in Archie never break. Instead, if you move or delete your content, Archie displays a "tombstone" record that can be redirected to your content's new home.
  3. Easily add stuff and get it back out again
    Archie makes it easy for you and your colleagues or staff to submit content, as well as edit and review metadata. If you have a large collection of files to add at once, Library staff can batch import all your content and metadata at one time. The same goes for exporting content from DSpace.

3 Reasons Why We Use DSpace

  1. Large user community
    DSpace is installed and used by hundreds of educational institutions, organizations, and government agencies around the world.
  2. Open and flexible
    DSpace is completely open source.
    Each DSpace Community and Collection can be branded with your logo.
    Metadata fields and content submission forms can be customized for your collections.
  3. Archival
    DSpace is a system for archiving content, that is, maintaining the integrity and relationships of, and information about, your files over time.

"Institutional Repository?"

Essentially, an institutional repository signifies an organizational commitment to the stewardship of works created by an institution and its community members.

In the digital age, such a commitment is often represented by a set of services offered to members of a university community for the management and dissemination of digital works created by the institution and its community members. (Lynch 2003)

“Institutional repository” may also specifically refer to an online archive or database of valuable scholarly or academic content that is created by or affiliated with an institution. The archive provides systems for storing, archiving, and retrieving the content.

What technology and software does Archie use?

Archie is built on the open-source DSpace software developed by MIT and HP. DSpace is a Java application. Metadata is stored in a Postgresql database. Archived files are stored as bitstream objects in the file system. See the DSpace web site a for more information.

What kind of content is stored in Archie?

Institutional repositories are often used to store a wide range of content: original research, technical papers, datasets, presentations, books, audio, video, images, web pages....  In theory, there aren't many limits on what digital formats can be archived in Archie.

What do you mean "archived"?

Archie stores digital files in their most elemental form and can be used to insure a file's integrity over time. Additionally, Archie stores information, referred to as metadata, about each file. Archie stores metadata about each file's structure, what applications should be used for opening the file, who the author is, who submitted it to the repository, and any other information you want to use to describe your work.

Can anyone submit to Archie?

Archie is supported and managed for KUMC and partner organizations. DSpace, the software used by Archie, is built around two major concepts: Communities and Collections. A community is a group of people who have some level of permission or responsibility over a collection. When Library staff create an Archie community for you, one person will be assigned the role of community administrator. Additional users request to be added to the community. As new users are added to the community, the administrator can assign them permissions and roles. A community can be one person or 100 people. Communities can also have sub–communities.

A collection is a group of files, or items, owned by the community. Typically, items together in one collection have some logical relationship.

Can anyone see my content?

Access to your content can be customized according to your needs. The Library's aim is to provide open access to content whenever possible. That said, access can be restricted to only your community or to any user with a KUMC UserID.

Contact Jason Stirnaman for assistance.

References