Professor Angela Repanovici
Transilvania University of Brasov,
ROMANIA

Email: arepanovici@unitbv.ro

Abstract: The greatest obstacle to any change in the fundamental structure of scholarly communication lies in the inertia of the traditional publishing paradigm. And nowhere is that inertia more profound—and understandable, given the professional stakes—than amongst academic faculty. Unlike trade publishing, academic authors rarely receive direct compensation for the research articles they publish. Rather, they publish for professional recognition and career advancement, as well as to contribute to scholarship in their discipline. Accommodating these faculty needs and perceptions—and demonstrating the relevance of an institutional repository in achieving them—must be central to content policies and implementation plans.

The principal author benefits of online open access to their research pertain to enhanced professional visibility. This visibility and awareness is driven by both broader dissemination and increased use. No library can afford a subscription to every possible journal—regardless of publication quality—rendering much of the research literature inaccessible to many researchers.

Method: Using FEDORA, free and open software it is realised one small repository with scientific product of Fine Mechanics and Mecatronics Department of Transilvania University of Brasov. FEDORA, Open Source Technology, is used for: Storage (Repository technologies to ensure longevity and integrity for any kind of digital content), Semantics (Semantic technologies to contextualize and inter-relate digital content from many sources) and Services (Collaborative technologies to enable the creation of innovative, collaborative information spaces).

Marketing research: Identifying and understanding users. To populate a digital repository with useful materials, a professional development team needs to identify and sufficiently understand the needs of their service's primary users. After the small repository is created, people are expected to become users; however, new users will not necessarily recognize a service's value unless it is sufficiently publicised.


1. LexiURL link analysis
LexiURL is free software designed to retrieve link data from search engines, like Yahoo!, Google, or AltaVista and calculate summary statistics for lists of links or URLs. Its output is a series of standard reports that convey information about page URLs, sites and Web domains linking to a main site of interest. Although LexiURL is a flexible, generic program, many of its functions are useful for a digital repository link analysis.


2. ONLINE QUESTIONARY
 The results of our user survey provided us with current information concerning the perceptions some users have of the repositories, what they want or need from them and how they approach them on the Web. Our survey was carried out on the Internet using a Web-based questionnaire. To obtain participants we compiled a set of relevant mailing lists on the Internet (e.g., mailing lists for health care professionals, lecturers, educators, researchers etc who would likely be interested in the repository's content) and sent out announcements regarding our questionnaire through the lists.


 Analyses and Results:
Repository managers are focused on how to develop their repositories and they are intented on encouraging individuals to deposit, but over time they will have to focus more on understanding long-term user needs. A user-based focus will become especially important for managers of e-learning repositories because the expected value of e-learning objects will have great interest fro the lecturers and students in higher education.
Based on the survey information generated from non-users, repository managers should not assume that non-use of their resource is due to an ignorance of or lack of familiarity with digital resources. Potential users could be using other types of digital libraries and repositories; therefore, it is a good best management practice to try to find out more about what is attracting them to other repositories (online competitors possibly) and develop publicity programmes that will bring people up to date on what makes their resource especially valuable.


Conclusion:
Institutional repositories offer a strategic response both to the opportunities of the digital networked environment and to the systemic problems in the today's scholarly journal system. This response can be applied immediately, reaping both short-term and on-going benefits for universities and their faculty and advancing the transformation of scholarly communication over the long term.

 

Brief Biography of the Speaker:

• PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY
  
  • From December 2003, by contest, Professor at the Fine Mechanics and Mechatronics Department , Mechanical Engineering Faculty and Department of Library Science, Letters Faculty
  • From 2001-2008 University Library Director
  • From 2006-2008, President of National Commision Library
  • From 2005, Coordinator of the area of specialisation Information Science and Communication within the Faculty of Letters, open and distance learning;
  
   

• POST GRADUATE SPECIALISATION
  1983-1988, University of Brasov, Faculty of Mechanics, specialization Fine Mechanics
  1999 PhD in Technical Sciences
  2003 Postgraduate training course - Quality Management
  2006 Postgraduate training course - Communication and Information Sciences;
  From 2006 PHd candidate in field of Economical Science, Marketing , cotutela Library Science
  
   

• COMPETENCIES SKILLS
  • Information literacy
  • Information science
  • Typografic and digitization systems
  • Management of infodocumentary systems
  • Informatization systems
   

•  SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY:
  
  Books published in main publishing houses: 8
  
  Articles published: 157
  
  Patents: 1
  
   

•  RESEARCH ACTIVITY:
  Director of 5 research national projects in engineering applied in library science
  
   

• INITIATION and DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMES:
  LEONARDO DA VINCI PROJECT 2005-2006: No. RO/2005/95006/EX;
  LEONARDO DA VINCI PROJECT 2003-2004: No. RO/2003/PL 91017/EX
  
   

• Organiser,editor of International Conference in Information Science, BIBLIO Brasov
  2002-2007
  
   

• PLENARY LECTURE:
  • The 4th WSEAS/IASME International Conference on EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES(EDUTE'08),Corfu Island,Crete,26-28 October 2008,Plenary Lecture, Information Technology Implication In Student Behaviour For Information Literacy Skills
  • Internet Librarian International 2008, London,16-18 October 2008, Conference Speaker, Marketing research in Internet resourses,User needs analyse
  
   

• MEMBERSHIP IN INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
  • Member AGIR (General Association of Engineers in Romania)
  • Member SRMTA (Romanian Ssociety of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics)
  • European Association for Health Information and Libraries ( EAHIL)