Thinking beyond If You Build It, They Will Come: Increasing Submissions to Campus Institutional Repositories

Abstract Institutional repositories have not lived up to their potential. Faculty consider preparing and submitting works to repositories onerous, they worry about making works freely available, and they fail to see benefits of submitting works to repositories. Nevertheless, opportunities to increase repository submissions exist, and IRs offer campuses a way to promote dissemination of research and scholarship while meeting user needs. This article identifies hurdles to getting faculty to submit works and highlights how librarians can leverage campus resources and address faculty priorities to increase submissions. Insights gathered via assessments of repository workflows, library processes, and communications with librarians at several U.S. universities are presented to support the conclusion that, to increase submissions, repository staff should leverage information channels, increase benefits associated with submitting works to the repository, and reduce costs associated with the submission process. By grounding the study’s approach in rational choice logic, the findings represent a broadly-applicable framework.