Institutional Repositories

An institutional repository is a digital archive which centralizes, preserves, and provides access to an institution’s intellectual output. They benefit institutions by raising their profiles and scholars by bringing broader dissemination, increased use, and enhanced professional visibility of scholarly research.

CARL fully supports the systematic archiving of, and access to digital research output of Canadian academic organizations into institutional repositories as stated in its Position Statement (2013). As materials deposited in institutional repositories are held in open access, researchers and authors may want to learn more about CARL’s work in open access.

Scholaris

CARL is excited to be part of the Scholaris initiative! Over the past year (2023-2024), our team has worked closely with Scholars Portal, the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL), and University of Toronto Libraries (UTL) to develop Scholaris, a groundbreaking national shared repository service that offers hosted infrastructure and support for Canadian institutional repositories. Here is more information regarding CARL’s involvement with Scholaris, as well as the brand new Scholaris website.

Institutional Repositories Available in Canada

Below is a list of institutional repositories available across Canadian colleges and universities. If your institution is not listed below, consult our list of Adoptive Repositories, intended for those whose home institution does not currently maintain an institutional repository.

Inventory of Canadian Repository Platforms

In 2018, the CARL Open Repositories Working Group (ORWG)‘s Next Generation Repository Task Group recognized the need for an accurate, community-updated inventory of Canadian repositories. This inventory supports discussions on repository infrastructure, software upgrades, and fosters connections among repository managers and developers.

Currently overseen by the CARL Canadian Repositories Community of Practice Steering Committee, Canadian repository managers are asked to update their repository information annually in the Canadian Repository Platform Inventory Spreadsheet. Data snapshots are taken in December and stored in the Federated Research Data Repository (FRDR).

Current Groups and Initiatives

Past Groups and Initiatives