Voluntary depositing and institutional open access culture

The New Bulgarian University (NBU) Scholar Electronic Repository (SER) is the first open access institutional repository in Bulgaria. Following the “green route”, the archive promotes self-archiving practice to authors and reveals a more robust and reliable alternative to long-term preservation and additionally granting higher visibility of their materials. It has two unique features: 1.) Depositing is voluntary; 2.) Original content is submitted in a range of different languages. The article presents a survey of self-archiving practices for the Scholar Electronic Repository. An overview is given of the strict meta-data control which is crucial for storing and backing-up authors’ materials. A detailed summary of the systematic approach to authors’ awareness and training is presented. Eventual pros and cons of several promotional infrastructure designs are discussed, including monthly seminars, real-time training and interactive LibGuides online. A six-month monitoring of submitted data and self-created records is performed to improve training, tracing typical mistakes. The frequency of submitting an alternative abstract is also considered, in a different language (not accompanying the original text), as an extra effort from authors. A distinctive difference in approach and experience of authors, who have attended training and those, who have not, has been detected. The Repository team assists the depositing process by adding end-user services. The Web 2.0 RSS facility directly issues information about new titles into the Library blog and the mobile version of the Library web site. Announcements are posted into the Library blog and on the Facebook page to increase the impact and stimulate the accessibility of archived items (paintings, exhibitions, music art, videos). Meta-data from the NBU Repository are transferred to other information systems to raise the visibility and popularity of University research assets. In conclusion – the first of its kind institutional repository in Bulgaria offers proven and functional practices for the newly-launched five repositories in the country. The daily experience of developing the online archive provides evidence that it opens ample opportunities for university libraries from countries with poor information infrastructure and suffering from a language barrier might foster to join the green-on institutional repositories line