Adoption of Institutional Repositories Towards Realization of Digital Libraries

Abstract

Dissemination of the literature is crucial in scholarship for it to meaningfully contribute to development. The establishment of the Open Archives Initiative and the BOAI transformed the scholarly communication landscape. Open access institutional repository (IR) is one innovative technology through which scholarly literature can be made freely available and accessible to the public. Academic libraries across the globe, including Africa, embraced and established IRs to enable cost-free access to their institutional research output on the internet, thus increasing its global visibility and reach while ensuring long-term preservation of the intellectual output. This chapter explores the role of open access repositories in enhancing access to information and knowledge generation in academic libraries, catalogues the success of IRs in Southern Africa, and ascertains the challenges faced by universities in Southern Africa in the establishment and management of IRs.