Measuring the Sustainability of the African Institutional Repository: A selective case study

Abstract

The advent of open access, digitised institutional repositories (IR) changed the way that research at universities and research institutions are stored, archived, accessed and generally managed. Statistics shows that only 3% of IRs in the world is situated in Africa. Most of these are found in institutions in Southern Africa. Nyambi (2011), Anbu (2008) and other authors report that there are more IRs in Africa, but lament that most are not accessible in open access. Research (Van Deventer & Pienaar, 2008; Rieger, 2011; Wells, 2009) and others, shows that effective information- and knowledge management, and an awareness of the value of open access to digital research information are pre-requisites for effective and sustainable IRs operations. Successful planning and implementation of an IR do not guarantee sustainability over time. This paper explores possible indicators of sustainability for IRs who are facing the well documented challenges experienced in African IRs.