Institutional Repositories for Open Access; The Ghanaian Experience
Abednego Corletey · 2011
In 2008, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) implemented the first Institutional Repository in Ghana. Six month later and with 560 postgraduate theses entered, KNUST appeared 52nd on the webometrics ranking for 100 best universities in Africa. This success resulted in the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Ghana (CARLIGH) and International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publication (INASP) helping four academic institutions to implement repositories. The repositories’ managers promised using it to showcase research from their institutions, starting with graduate theses/dissertations. Aims: This paper looks at how these repositories have met the challenges of technical support, content provision, qualified personnel, institutional backing, achievements and lessons for other institution thinking IRs Method: In depth interviews, observations, checks from the websites, reports and secondary documents obtained from the Libraries were used to collect data for the paper. Result: All four institutions had problems with their repositories. While two were completely out, two were uploading some content but their platform was only visible within the library. The absence of policy legalizing the operation of the repositories made it difficult for the managers to request for equipment, content and qualified staff to run the repositories. Useful recommendations are made for CARLIGH, INASP and other bodies that seek to support such enterprise with resources.