Szegedi Tudományegyetem Klebelsberg Kuno Könyvtára
This lesson offers a detailed discussion of repositories.
Two major topics are covered.
What are repositories?
What are they used for?
What are their origins?
Which international and Hungarian repositories are worth using?
At libraries, information acquisition in the traditional sense (i.e., on-site reading and the borrowing of books) has been complemented by the need to access digital or digitized library resources from home. This change has radically transformed the way libraries deliver content, and some libraries are even providing reliable digital information in databases they have built themselves. These databases are called repositories.
The classic function of libraries is to manage the wealth of knowledge accumulated by humankind, focusing on the following:
To this day, these three tasks remain the core duties of libraries in spite of the fact that the role of libraries has somewhat changed due to the communication revolution that characterizes the internet age. As a result, the traditional activities of managing analog (typically, printed) documents have been significantly expanded to include the management of digital documents as well.
Repositories serve as one of the most important tools for libraries to digitally distribute information and deliver content digitally.
A repository is basically an electronic library collection (database), which mainly functions as a platform to archive and share full text documents.
Repositories range from institutional document repositories (for example, those managed by universities or research institutes) to thematic (disciplinary collection) document repositories and academic databases, with other repositories that are defined as data and preprint* repositories also becoming increasingly common in recent years.
The word ‘repository’ itself is of Latin origin (repositorium). In English, it refers to a number of things, and it appears in many phrases, most of which are understood to be ‘storage’ of some kind.
preprint
In academic publishing is a version that precedes formal peer review and actual publication in a peer-reviewed academic journal.
Documents in repositories are usually explored by librarians in a detailed and professional manner, in terms of both bibliographic data and content. The content itself is linked to content in other databases. This kind of integration allows the various repository indexing systems to be highly effective in getting any uploaded material into the scholarly bloodstream of the world.
Repositories are metadata* indexing systems, that can store files of any extension. Where the type of document stored allows, it also performs full-text indexing.
metadata
The term ‘metadata’ means data about data. In terms of library documents, it provides key data in connection with a given document so that it can be easily identified and retrieved.
Due to the way they are constructed, repositories can be searched in the same way as online library catalogues, with the difference that documents (mostly articles and books) may also be accessed in full-text versions.
Example
If a repository contains hundreds of articles published in a journal, then it is possible to search for every word in all of those articles and even to narrow such searches down on the basis of author’s name or subject.
DOI: A ‘digital object identifier’ is a persistent identifier used to uniquely identify, register, and track digital materials on the internet. In some respects, it is similar to the ISBN of books. Acting as a link, it usually points to the web pages of journals and publishers or to repository items.
An example might be 10.17670/MPed.2017.2.221, which is then prefixed with a URL: https://doi.org/10.14232/actacyb.295044
Born-digital: The term ‘born-digital’ refers to materials (text, image, video, etc.) that are inherently created on a digital platform in an electronic format. This allows them to be uploaded to a repository directly, i.e., without the need for analog-to-digital conversion. By their very nature, such materials can be both queried and copied, unless protected by DRM. Typical examples of born-digital documents include the electronic manuscripts of novels and theses written with the help of a word processor.
eduID: A user account that can be linked to a higher education institution, allowing the use of subscribed and self-built databases with a single registration (about registration). The relationship with the institution is regularly checked.
The driving idea behind the creation of repositories is rooted in the Open Access* (more recently, Open Science) movement, with the required technology becoming available around the millennium through the emergence of repository frameworks. The “Green route”* to Open Access was designed to ensure that the results of scientific research published in journal articles are available free of charge. However, as the technical background is not limited to scholarly articles, repositories can host and serve a wide range of electronic content. As a result, the growth of digitisation projects has made a wide range of content types and subjects available in repository networks.
Open Access (OA)
It means that everyone has free access to scientific results.
Green route
The ‘Green route’ to Open Access refers to self-archiving, whereby an author deposits a version of their manuscript (preprint, postprint, or publisher’s version) on an institutional or a disciplinary open access repository.
Repositories have also been created to provide a combined searchable and aggregated* records available for all the information stored in them. record of the information they contain. Accordingly, what follows is an overview of the most prominent international and Hungarian repository search engines along with a look at the repositories of the SZTE Klebelsberg Library.
Aggregated information
refers to combined information which is gathered from several sources.
Here are some of the main search interfaces that can be used as a starting point for navigating international repository networks.
Registry of Open Access Repositories
This is a repository of repositories, i.e., a register which lists databases themselves instead of documents.
Bielefeld Academic Search Engine
As one of the world’s largest scholarly and scientific search systems for academic resources, this system indexes not only thousands of repository resources but also journals as well as other digital collections.
Most Hungarian higher education institutions have institutional repositories of their own to publish the scholarly and scientific works (publications, research data, etc.) produced by the academics who work there. The materials stored in these repositories usually come with links to bibliographic data stored in the Hungarian Science Bibliography* system called MTMT.
In order for a repository to be actually connected to the central system, it has to be a so-called Qualified Repository. The Hungarian repository network can be searched in a shared way via the Scientific Document Common Search Engine, which also provides a list of the main institutional repositories in Hungary.
Hungarian Science Bibliography (MTMT)
A database for the official registration and presentation of the results of scientific research in Hungary. The database provides a controlled way to upload data on the scientific work and performance of researchers from participating institutions. Its purpose is to present, record and measure scientific performance on a bibliographic level.
The Contenta repositories created by the SZTE Klebelsberg Library are digital archives of documents produced as part of academic and educational activities at the University. Among other things, it contains works published by professors, researchers, and students of the University, works published by the University, and information related to the history and operations of the University, digital educational resources created at the University.
As stated on the home page of Contenta, the archive stores and indexes documents produced in the course of educational and research work, making them available in full-text (and complete also in terms of image, video, and audio content). In addition, the archive provides access to digital materials created within the framework of the digitization projects of the SZTE Klebelsberg Library.
Contenta is, essentially, a collection of thematically distinct repositories, which may be queried collectively using a single interface, which is in line with the international and Hungarian practice.
The repository system is an important tool for the University to carry out its statutory duties in terms of content management. It allows for the central or individual uploading, professional indexing, provision, and long-term secure archiving of documents produced at the University in the course of research and educational activities.
This repository is a full-text database of works that are the result of scholarly or scientific work and artistic activities performed at the University. Authors can upload to the repository, in PDF format, their own work if they have been published and also registered in the Hungarian Scientific Bibliography Database (MTMT).
This repository is a searchable database of doctoral theses written and defended in doctoral programs at the predecessor institutions of the University of Szeged as well as PhD theses defended after the establishment of the University of Szeged (January 1, 2000).
This is a database of scientific scholarly and literary publications related to the University of Szeged and its predecessors. It is a repository of university publications, including both those that are still in print and those that have been discontinued.
This is a searchable database of theses from the University of Szeged and its predecessors. Due to copyright and plagiarism issues, full-text theses are only available for reading on dedicated computers at the SZTE Klebelsberg Library.
This is the central repository of electronic learning materials that have been created and are continuously being created at the University of Szeged. The purpose of the archive is to ensure the long-term preservation as well as the professional management and provision of electronic learning materials.
This is a database of publications (yearbooks, curricula, university newspapers, student magazines) related to the history of the University of Szeged and its predecessors.
This is the central digital storage and virtual exhibition space for images and other media materials collected by the SZTE Klebelsberg Library. The collection includes portraits of university personalities, photos from the history of the University of Szeged, documents and photos from the bequests of Albert Szent-Györgyi and Kuno Klebelsberg, and documents from Katalin Karikó.
Among the repositories available at the Library, this collection is the broadest in its scope. It is a treasure trove of the SZTE Klebelsberg Library’s documents regarded as museum pieces and estate collections of academics, as well as miscellaneous in terms of both subject and genre and not closely related to the University of Szeged.
This database contains the digitized, full-text issues of the regional daily newspaper Délmagyarország for the period 1910 to 2010.
This repository contains literary works and essays published in the literary journal Tiszatáj, established in 1947, with all materials available in a full-text, searchable, digitized form.
With the help of this search engine, all content available in all of the repositories of the SZTE Klebelsberg Library can be queried simultaneously.