I recently had an interesting experience from an academic friend of mine who, on learning that I worked on team involved with repository development, hit me hard over the head with all that she thought was absolutely evil about repositories. It’s a bit of a shock having a friend you think you are helping turn on you as if you’re the devil incarnate (maybe repositories have the power to turn friendships into marriages?) — but her concerns did provoke some soul-searching and discussion among other colleagues of mine and myself, and I am happy to say the story has finally had a happy ending (no divorce).

The whole experience was a reminder of

• finding ways to tailor the different advantages of repositories to different audiences (and academics and faculties/schools/depts are not all the same);
• a most rewarding insight in some of the details of the pressures academics work under;
• the importance of getting both workflows and housekeeping tasks right;
• and the broader need of the whole university to be involved from the VC down to assist in the promotion of the right culture and support to sustain repositories.

Those interested in the details can check my recent posts at my personal blog
Neil Godfrey
http://metalogger.wordpress.com