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Institutional Repositories

Institutional repositories centralize, preserve, and make accessible the knowledge generated by academic institutions. They benefit institutions by raising their profiles and scholars by bringing broader dissemination, increased use, and enhanced professional visibility of scholarly research. As such, institutional repositories represent one of the best opportunities for libraries to partner closely with faculty and to help shape the future of scholarly communications.

CARL supports the development and advancement of institutional repositories by:

    • Articulating the importance of institutional repositories
    • Improving the content recruitment at institutional repositories
    • Demonstrating the value of overlay services for Canadian institutional repositories

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. As materials deposited in institutional repositories are held in open access, researchers and authors may want to learn more about CARL’s work on open access.

Initiatives and Resources

CARL Open Repositories Working Group

In January 2018, CARL assembled the Open Repositories Working Group, which includes representation from those managing repositories and communicating with researchers as well as library directors who guide and shape organizational priorities. The group is seeking to establish a strategic vision for Canadian repositories and help move the community forward around shared goals and objectives.

Institutional Repositories Available in Canada

A growing number of Canadian research institutions are implementing institutional repositories. These repositories are an important strategy for attaining open access, and provide a key infrastructure for the long-term preservation of digital materials. CARL has assembled a comprehensive list of: