Advancing Digital Repository Services for Faculty Primary Research Assets: An Exploratory Study

The Oviatt Library at California State University Northridge (CSUN) hosts two digital repositories represented by Digital Collections for archival and historical materials, and ScholarWorks institutional repository (IR) for scholarly output. This paper reports on an exploratory study for advancing digital repository services regarding faculty primary research assets created in the course of research and/or collected by scholar custodians of archival materials at CSUN. A survey was distributed to understand: 1) which faculty and departments collect or create primary source assets as part of their research, 2) what types of assets are collected or created, 3) the activities performed to preserve these assets, 4) the level of interest in making primary research documents available online, 5) faculty knowledge of library methods, and 6) attitudes regarding collaboration with the library. This survey functions as part of a needs assessment toward the development of new and enhanced digital repository services to advance research, preservation, data curation, instruction, and exhibition. This knowledge will also help to systematize library and faculty collaboration through the development of policies and workflows that reduce ad hoc re-evaluations and protracted negotiations over the ability of the library to support digital research and instruction projects.