Pushing the envelope Making a good system great through collaboration

							      Pushing the envelope:
Making a good system great through
           collaboration
                  Karin Smith
            Charles Sturt University
             kasmith@csu.edu.au

               Tony Cargnelutti
                  UNILINC
             tony@unilinc.edu.au
       The initial collaboration -
               The vision
• Collaboration between Centre for Research
  and Graduate Training and Library
• CSU Research Output (CRO ) – an Institutional
  Repository that also acts as a research
  management system.
• Collecting and collating HERDC (Higher
  Education Research Data Collection)
• Mandate for final accepted drafts
  The subsequent collaboration -
       The implementation

CSU/UNILINC - UNILINC provides technical
  support to implement Digitool
Together we developed:
     • Data structure – Dublin Core
     • Submission forms/Authentication
     • Reporting – which enabled other
       workflows
                Successes
• Academics used the submission forms for over
  1000 items
• 2007 HERDC reporting came entirely from
  CRO
• After copyright checking about half the
  documents are available for open access.
Most authors submitted a final accepted draft
           The evolution -
    Rethinking the data structure
• We could not rely solely on CRO for accurate
  author information, we still needed to work
  with external file for 2007 reporting
• Dublin Core data structure in Digitool does not
  allow for subfields
• Converting the structure from DC to MARC21
  for reporting
When the stars line up…bringing it
 all together to achieve the CRO
• an institution with a clear vision, a committed
  executive & an effective project plan/team
• a service provider with the flexibility,
  creativity, infrastructure & technical expertise
  to execute the vision
• a system vendor that is also flexible &
  committed to supporting the vision
• mutual commitment, communication & trust
The details – fully customised ‘out-
       of-the-box’ solution
• original concept was for a simple ‘out of the
  box’ repository but CRO was much more
• Needed complete rethink – particularly from
  UNILINC & ExLibris including a new agreement
• Examples of adventure:
   Test System installation – a challenging situation
   Data Structure – UNILINC & ExLibris expertise
   working together for positive result
The timeframe
    Not hampered by perceived
          impediments….
• Tightest of timeframes
• The system: DigiTool
• Coming to terms with HERDC, RQF, FoR, ERA,
  specific institutional data needs…
             The Community
• DigiTool Working Group
• Considerable knowledge gained in building
  the vision – data & systems
• CRO – fully integrated research repository
  another important model in the mix of
  Repository solutions