Institutional repository

A case study about the foundation and subsequent expansion of a public repository.

Who wrote this case study?

Mary Hill and Tim Jacobs from The Christie Library and Knowledge Service, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust (2016).

Who asked?

The Christie Research Publications Repository was a project instigated by the Kostoris Library (now The Christie Library & Knowledge Service) in 2007

What did they say?

Steve Glover and Anne Webb [former staff] made a successful bid to the Research Management Committee to set up an institutional repository accessed via a searchable database of the publication output of the Trust and Paterson Institute for Cancer Research.  A web-based database in SQL was produced internally and was hosted by the Christie IT Department.

The rationale was

  • provides easy identification and access to Christie research publications
  • promotes the organisation and its research
  • researches may obtain listings of research
  • other cancer research organisations such as the Institute of Cancer Research have them

What did you do? 

The project was a success but quickly outgrew the original solution and was highly dependent on the Trust IT department.  So by 2010, it was hosted externally by BioMed Central with greater functionality.

How did it help?

The Repository provides

  • a vehicle to show what research is being conducted within the Trust
  • collaborators with an easy platform to view the papers of fellow researchers, connecting people to people
  • a clear idea of the rich heritage of research in the Trust
  • a single point of access to Christie research available to anyone in the World enabling people to keep up to date with the latest research

It has enabled library staff to provide

  • detailed bibliometrics for the Research and Development Department each quarter to gauge performance of each division
  • advice and guidance to researchers on how they locate all their publications including setting up ORCID
  • promotion of the current research activity within the Trust by sharing on social media, helping to connect people to the evidence base and best practice

For the Trust

  • it has helped provide research data for national bids
  • it markets the breadth and depth of research activity

It was the first NHS hospital with a public repository so marks it out as a serious research institution.

April 2016