University libraries and their role in building and managing institutional digital repositories

Abstract

Institutional digital repository is one of the latest technologies applied by educational institutions as an official means of communication for disseminating new research and ideas among researchers interested in a specific field of research. University libraries share with digital repositories that...It performs the same functions of preserving, managing, and making information sources available. However, we notice a clear marginalization of librarians and their lack of involvement in building, organizing, and managing digital repositories, especially at the Arab level, even though these tasks are considered among the basic functions of library specialists. And in thisThe study will attempt to shed light on institutional digital repositories (IDR) in terms of their origin, tasks, services, and their complementary relationship with academic libraries, in order to clarify the role of university libraries in supporting these repositories, with a focus on the roles assigned to library specialists and ways to enhance this role to achieve maximum benefit.To achieve the objectives of the study, the descriptive analytical approach was used, as the research begins with an analytical description of the literature related to the concept of digital repositories and the role of university libraries in building them, identifying the programs used in their creation, and the preservation policies followed for digital resources and rights management in repositories.This is done by asking a set of questions, the most important of which are: (1) What are digital repositories? (2) What is the role of university libraries in building digital repositories?       (3) Identify the importance of digital repositories in the field of preserving and organizing the digital content of educational institutions?