An Integrated Digital Services Model for Institutional Repositories

DePaul University Library created a suite of digital services to support faculty projects which addressed common hurdles to repository adoption. In a faculty survey we ran in the fall of 2014, faculty reported an unawareness of the repository, uncertainty of how they might use it. However, they also reported that they placed value on the repository services we presented to them and a desire to hear more information. Anecdotally, we also heard the common refrain that faculty are too busy and too technologically challenged to engage with the repository on their own. In response, we defined several interrelated services to address these problems in the form of workshops, user groups, project consultations, digitization and start-to-finish faculty works services. We also integrated our library liaisons much more in repository initiatives by developing greater familiarity among liaisons with our digital services and the repository. Liaisons are now much more comfortable with explaining our services as well as identifying potential repository content. They are also partnering with Digital Services in conducting environmental scans of campus content, helping with outreach efforts and assisting in workshops. In this presentation, DePaul Library’s Digital Services Coordinator will outline the kinds of services that support the repository, what outreach efforts worked best and the project management techniques that allowed us to rapidly execute our new strategy of promoting the repository as a key element of our overall library services