You are invited to a Repository briefing and discussion immediately prior to SPARC DR2008 in Baltimore. Please email info@eprints.org.

The Baltimore lighthouse is celebrating its centenary, having been constructed in 1908.

Looking for Evidence of Repository Success

In the run-up to the SPARC Digital Repositories 2008, many people are asking whether repositories are effective and whether they are successful at appealing to their primary stakeholders - the researchers.

On the eve of the SPARC conference you are invited to an EPrints-sponsored cross-platform discussion on "Gaining Researcher Attention" - to examine examples of stakeholder engagement from the community. Where's the evidence that repositories can make researchers lives better? Come and contribute stories of "repository value" provided by your repository team and its software - whatever the platform. How did you improve the lot of one or more of your researchers? As an outcome of this discussion, we would like to start a public collection of repository success stories, to help libraries undertake repository planning and marketing.

Following the discussion, we would like to take the opportunity to bring delegates up to date with the open source EPrints repository software platform, its current capabilities and its future development agenda. We believe that EPrints is great software for an effective and efficient repository system. Topics to be covered include the latest support for repository management, metadata configuration, quality assurance and user-oriented services like building author bibliographies and citation tracking. A LiveCD will be distributed to enable delegates to try out EPrints.

Location

Homeland Room, Renaissance Harborplace Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland, US.
6pm Sunday 16th November 2008, (preceeding SPARC Digital Repositories 2008)
Beginning with a buffet and drinks
To register, please email info@eprints.org

Topics

Cross-platform discussion and evidence of Gaining Researcher Attention
Demonstration of the latest EPrints release (v 3.1)
Future Agenda for Software (EPrints v3.2 and beyond) and EPrints Open Source Community
Questions and Answers

Useful Links

EPrints: http://www.eprints.org
Latest EPrints News: http://eprintsnews.blogspot.com
Pre-SPARC DR EPrints Briefing Meeting: http://www.eprints.org/events/preDR2008
SPARC DR 2008: http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/ir08/

Note: the EPrints Briefing is co-located with the SPARC Digital Repositories meeting schedule, but is not part of its official schedule.