Planning your Institutional Repository

Institutional Repository Workshop 1 – 3 April 2009

Presented by ina.smith@up.ac.za

ContentContent

• Implementation Planning Team• Needs Analysis & Report• Proposal• Business Plan• Timeline• Introducing your IR

Why plan?Why plan?

“Planning is the process that helps us determine where we are going, how we are going to get there and also how we will know when we have arrived.”

“If you don’t know where you’re going, you probably won’t get there.” - Forest Gump

(Botha 2007)

Implementation Planning TeamImplementation Planning Team

• Assemble a Team – representatives from:– Member of library senior management with budgetary

responsibility (Barton & Waters 2005) – 1 or 2 Subject Librarians– Cataloguer with interest in metadata– Representative from Special Collections (Archivist)– Consultant e.g. from Dept. of Information Science– Copyright Officer– Digitization Specialist– Project Manager– E-Resources Librarian– Systems Librarian

Implementation Planning Team Implementation Planning Team (cont.)(cont.)

• Responsibilities:

– Read & learn from others

– View IR’s from other institutions

– Administer academic and staff surveys or interviews

– Conduct a needs assessment

– Synthesize results of surveys

– Develop proposal/ business plan/ timeline

– Develop presentations for staff, academics

– Identify early adopters for a pilot project

– Identify and choose technologies, test technologies

– Start developing policies

– Identify potential role players

– Assess current staff skills and talents etc. (Barton & Waters 2005)

Needs Analysis & ReportNeeds Analysis & Report

• Also needs assessment• Key foundation for success – understanding unique needs of your

scholarly community• Successful needs assessment includes both formal & informal

means of surveying the community• Informal surveys: face-to-face meetings with individual academics

and administrators, e-mail contacts, monitoring existing web-based publishing services on campus

• Formal surveys: paper-based/ online surveys of academics and staff, formal presentations, Q&A sessions with departments and academic groups

• Compile report with which Implementation Team can work – decisions on platform etc.

(Barton & Waters 2005)

ProposalProposal

• Feasibility study – provides basis for business plan• Outline:

– Introduction

– Service viability

– Technical viability

– Business model viability

– Market and marketing viability

– Management model viability

– Economic and financial model viability

– Business analysis techniques

• SWOT analysis and critical risk factors

– Conclusion (feasibility of service determined)

(Botha 2007)

Business PlanBusiness Plan

• Reasons– Give direction – roadmap for the future– Comprehensive action plan or forecast of how you plan or intend to achieve your

business goals– To obtain funding– To serve an inside purpose – communication– To be used as a tool to reduce risk

• Elements– Cover Page– Executive summary– Company/ business description– Product/ service description– Market analysis– Strategy and implementation– Management & Staffing– Marketing plan– Financial analysis – Recommendations & implementation

Presenting the Business PlanPresenting the Business Plan

• Neatly, don’t lose the content in too much frill• Professional in appearance• Concise• Comprehensive• Logical• Realistic• Easy to read• Practical and easy to implement• Format depends on presentation context: “elevator pitch”, oral

presentation, written presentation, internal presentation plan

(Botha 2007)

TimelineTimeline

• Graphical representation of a chronological sequence of events, also referred to as a chronology. It can also mean a schedule of activities, such as a timetable

• Project Timeline software – SmartDraw http://www.smartdraw.com/specials/projectchart.asp – MSOffice Project– MSWord– MSExcel

ChecklistChecklist

• See DVD titled IR Documentation & Presentations

BibliographyBibliography

• Botha, M. 2007. Business Plan Workshop. Pretoria: University of Pretoria.

• Barton, M.R. & Waters, M.M. 2005. Creating an Institutional Repository: LEADIRS Workbook. MIT Libraries.

Questions?Questions?

ina.smith@up.ac.zaina.smith@up.ac.za