Institutional Repositories and Open Archives in the Algerian Universities and

Research CentersBy Hakim Benoumelghar

Lecturer/Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou

The 14th ILDS ConferenceRessource Sharing at the Crossroads

1-3 October 2015, Istanbul

Introduction

• The launch in 1999 of the Open Access Initiative (OAI) and metadata sharing protocol, OAI-PMH, alongside the provision of deposit platforms, open source software, such as DSpace in 2002, which allow libraries to develop digital repositories and play a leading role in the open access movement, and by establishing institutional open archives alongside the thematic archives offered by scientific communities.

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In the same year, the libraries of the University of Michigan implement OAIster, a search engine to query virtually all active archives in the world. In 2003, the libraries of the University of Lund, Sweden, open the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) followed by the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) and Directory of Open Access Repositories (DOAR). The free access to publications and research continues to increase and spread throughout the world.

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Originally the current open archive projects concern the English-speaking scientists. Anxious to take advantage of opportunities offered by the Internet to develop the dissemination of scientific information, they created the first online archive databases.

“Paul Ginsparg designed in 1991 in the laboratory of Los Alamos basic pre- and post-prints of physical items, computing and mathematics, arXiv.org. In the UK, Stevan Harnad, a little later, developed a digital repository of publications in psychology and neuroscience, hosted by the University of Southampton, Cogprint. The British academic is also the source of software to the online self-archiving by scientists of their production, e-print.org”

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Deutsche Initiative für Netzwerkinformation (DINI), coordinates cooperation between institutions and implement recommendations and common standards and sets up a working group on electronic publications which provides technical support to the establishment and development of an open archive. In 2003, the DINI created a "Certificate for Documentation and Publication Services in order to improve the quality of archiving of digital documents and encourage the creation of institutional open archives.

The certificate imposes certain obligations for interoperability and sustainability archive storage, such as the use of Dublin Core metadata, persistent identifiers. In 2010, German DINI had 149 open archives (including 147 institutional archives)

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Finally, in Great Britain, institutions of research and higher education teamed up to promote institutional open archives within the SHERPA consortium, whose governance is ensured at the University of Nottingham. “Around an original core of seven partner institutions met in 2002, SHERPA federated new establishments during the first phase of the project which ran until 2006: 33 institutions have come together to support institutional open archives their networking,

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- This communication aims to clarify the open archives and institutional repositories set up by Algerian universities and research centers,

- This contribution also pursues the aim to review the project ISTeMag Optimizing Access to Scientific and Technical Information in Maghreb Universities. The project objective is, among others, to: "Define and implement an institutional policy of open archives. “

The objective of this communication

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Our main objectives are:

• Make an inventory of open archives and institutional repositories set up in Algeria;

• Identify the characteristics of open archives and Algerian institutional repositories;

• Propose institutional repositories development strategies in Algerian universities and research centers.

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To achieve these goals, we intend to answer the following research questions:

1. What are the institutions involved in the implementation process and management of institutional repositories and open archives in Algeria?

2. What are the main characteristics of open archives and Algerian institutional repositories?

3. How Algerian universities and research centers can benefit from the establishment of institutional digital repositories?

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To answer questions of this research we analyze the websites of the Algerian institutions of higher education and scientific research with the aim to identify experiences in the field of free access to the academic work produced by communities of these establishments. Finally, we conclude this paper with some reflections and proposals for generalization and good management of institutional repositories in the Algerian universities.

Methodology:

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Algiers: CERIST Digital Library (DL CERIST) is the institutional repository of the Research Centre on Scientific and Technical Information. It provides access to all the production of CERIST: conference papers, technical reports or research, theses, course materials, etc.To access CERIST DL: http://dl.cerist.dz

This digital library contains several collections:471 scientific articles84 theses,22 academic books

ISTeMAG Project

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Boumerdes: Institutional Repository of the M'Hamed Bougara University of Boumerdes (UMBB)The institutional repository of the University of Boumerdes is a digital archive comprised of scientific production of the University. Created using the DSpace software that manages, maintains and provides academic work of UMBB.Available at: http://dlibrary.univ-boumerdes.dz

This deposit contains multiple and diverse collections:- 30 acts of congresses and conferences;- 27 monographs, including two in the form of courses;- 607 articles and scientific papers in national and international journals and symposia;- 01 review;- 615 doctoral theses and magister dissertations Research in this deposit could be done by collection type, publication date, author, title or subject.

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Tlemcen: The institutional repository of the Abu Bakr Belkaid University of Tlemcen is accessible via the address: http://dspace.univ-tlemcen.dz/ created under the DSpace software. The educational departments of the University are represented and a collection of publications and research of the scientific community.

Batna: The website of the University of Batna http://www.univ-batna.dz/index.php/en/ was inaccessible at the time of our visit (May 2015).

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For other universities include few universities that have implemented an institutional repository as:

The University of Science and Technology of Oran: Accessible via the web at: http://dspace.univ-usto.dz/handle/123456789/144, it includes postgraduate theses managed by the DSpace software in seven scientific fields which could be done by the search for documents:Architecture and Civil EngineeringChemistryElectrical EngineeringMechanical EngineeringMathematics and ComputerPhysicsNatural Sciences and Life

Also the research can be done by author, name, title, subject or date of defense (from 2011 to 2015). Theses are available in their full texts.

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University of Medea: Digital repository contains the bachelor dissertations and research can be done by various criteria. http://www.univ-medea.dz/bibth/opac/

University of Oum El Bouaghi: In this deposit http://www.univ-oeb.dz/ available through the website, there are educational books and scientific articles published by teachers / researcher of the university

University of Guelma: The institutional repository contains the scientific production of the community of teachers and researchers from 2006 to 2014. It is available at: http://www.univ-guelma.dzproductions- Scientific Publications-Communications

Institutional Deposit of Ferhat ABBAS University - Setif 1: available at:http://dspace.univ-setif.dz:8888/jspui/ it contains the master memories, magister and doctoral theses presented in this university.

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University of Mostaganem: The digital repository of the university is accessible via the address: http://www.univ-mosta.dz/index.php/k2/k2-layout-2.

It includes the scientific production of research laboratories distributed by faculty.- Faculty of Exact Sciences and Informatics- Faculty of Natural Sciences and Life- Faculty of Science and Technology- Faculty of Law and Political Science- Faculty of Economics, Trade and Management Sciences- Faculty of Social Sciences- Faculty of Humanities and Arts- Institute of Sports and Physical Education- Faculty of Medicine.

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The High School of Trade: Digital repository accessible via the address: http://www.esc-alger.dz/index.php/fr/production-scientifique/contributions-enseignants contains teachers' contributions (courses, books chapters, exercises and corrected examinations and magister memories).

Also we note that some universities have set up institutional repository but remain to this day unpowered like the University of Bouira (or at: http://www.univ-bouira.dz/fr/index.php/2012- 11-30-17-24-07 / 2014-08-02-09-52-45 / 2014-08-02-09-59-31)

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The other university websites were inaccessible for several days as : Djelfa (http://www.univ-djelfa.dz/) ,Ghardaia (http://www.univ-ghardaia.dz/ar/), Jijel (http://www.univ-jijel.dz/) ,Tebessa (http://www.univ-tebessa.dz/), El Tarf (http://www.univ-eltarf.dz/), Khenchela (http://www.univ-khenchela.dz/),El Oued (http://www.univ-eloued.dz/), Souk Ahras (http://www.univ-soukahras.dz/fr/), Annaba (http://www.univ-annaba.dz/), Skikda (http://www.univ-skikda.dz/), Biskra (http://www.univ-biskra.dz/) ,M'Sila (http://www.univ-msila.dz/umvfr/) Ouargla (http://www.univ-ouargla.dz/index.php/fr/) and this is also the case for the University of Constantine 2 and the Universities of Tiaret and Blida.

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The research centers, besides the one mentioned above (CERIST), the Centre for Scientific and Technical Welding and Control (CSC) makes accessible references and summaries of several types of documents (publications, theses, papers and dissertations) through the web address: http://www.csc.dz/documentations-manifestations-csc.php?idlangue=2

This is also the case with Technology Research Center Semiconductors for Energy (http://www.crtse.dz/index.php/fr/ but also allows access to the full text for authorized users (by assigning an access password).

We can conclude from above that institutional repositories and open archives are rarely developed in Algerian scientific institutions and the access for is not always allowed for everyone.

Open archives in Algerian research centers

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Therefore, promoting open access to scientific production can be realized by adopting a National Policy for Open Access to STI, based on solid and reliable foundation. For this, it is useful to take the following actions: - Massively draw Algerian scientific institutions attention to join the universal movement for open access by building institutional repositories; - Establish the policy of the institutional archives to familiarize researchers and Algerian university teachers to use and consultation of open archives;

Development prospects of open archives in Algeria

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- Increase training workshops on open archives for researchers, librarians and computer scientists in order to build in each institution digital repository for intellectual production of her community; - Promote the emergence of a maximum of conferences to broaden and involve all actors of this movement in order to facilitate the access for scientific publications and works.

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Thank you

Questions?

hakim_benoumelghar@yahoo.fr

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Thank you for your attention

hakim_benoumelghar@yahoo.fr