Factors Influencing the Adoption of Institutional Repository Systems by Academic and Research Library Leadership

Academic and research libraries are dependent on a wide range of technology and systems to manage access and storage of digital research materials and collections. Given the high level of costs and staff needed to support these systems, the factors that influence library leadership in their decision making process to support or adopt new technologies is important. In order to understand the various dynamics involved with this decision making process, this study specifically examined influencing factors that academic library leaders use in their decisions to support or adopt institutional repository (IR) systems. This mixed method research study used both a quantitative research survey instrument that was adapted from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which was followed by semi-structured interviews to address the research questions presented in this study. The overarching research question of this study was, do the factors of usefulness, ease of use, need, cost effectiveness, and reliability influence academic library leaders\u27 decision making process regarding the adoption and ongoing support of technology initiatives, in this case IR systems? The data collected from this research reveal that library leaders place a significant emphasis on the factors of the perceived need, reliability, and perceived usefulness of an IR system. Building on these factors, interviews with senior library leaders revealed that the influencing factor of costs or ability to fund a system was a constant presence in their decision-making rubric