It’s a Repository, it’s a Depository, it’s an Archive...: Open Access, Digital Collections and Value

Abstract

In the context of Open Access to scientific and scholarly literature, repositories, both institutional and subject-based, have come to play an important role. However, the nature of repositories appears to be difficult to pin down as each category of people involved seems to have a different vision. The shifting interpretation of repositories has been a source of weakness in the promotion of these instruments. It is suggested here that this situation is not unique to repositories; on the contrary, all sociotechnical objects go through such a phase if we are to follow some of the important studies coming from the “Social construction of technology” school of thought. This suggests that technical objects succeed when relevant social groups interpret the meaning and function of a particular technology. By examining a number of events around repositories, in particular struggles around the possibility of mandating deposits, it is possible to identify a number of relevant social groups, as well as examine how they can either ally with each other or are displaying conflictual fault-lines between them. Using this form of analysis should help develop strategies to develop repositories.