Who Deposits, Who Downloads? A Usage and Awareness Study of a State University's DSpace 7 Institutional Repository

Most Indian universities have set up an institutional repository on DSpace to preserve and share their research — theses, journal articles, conference papers and reports. Many of these repositories are launched with enthusiasm and then grow slowly: a few departments deposit regularly, most do not, and nobody is sure whether anyone outside the campus reads what is there.

This M.Lib.I.Sc dissertation studies the repository of Kaveri State University (fictional), which runs DSpace 7. It combines two sources of evidence. First, the repository's own data: item counts by community and collection, deposit trends by year, and usage statistics (item views and file downloads, by country where available) from DSpace's Solr statistics, plus a check of whether its OAI-PMH endpoint is correctly exposed to harvesters. Second, a questionnaire survey of faculty and research scholars on awareness of the repository, depositing behaviour, motives and barriers (copyright worries, time, lack of mandate) and attitudes to open access.

The survey is analysed in SPSS — descriptive statistics, reliability of attitude scales with Cronbach's alpha, and chi-square tests of association between awareness and designation, discipline and experience. The repository's coverage of the university's doctoral theses is compared with the university's deposits in Shodhganga. The dissertation ends with a set of evidence-based policy recommendations: a deposit mandate, mediated deposit, advocacy and better metadata.

Abstract

Institutional repositories promise to make a university's research visible and permanently available, but their value depends on two things: researchers depositing their work and readers finding it. This study evaluates the DSpace 7 institutional repository of a state university by analysing its content growth and usage statistics and by surveying faculty and research scholars about awareness, deposit practices and barriers. The findings are used to recommend policies that could increase deposits and visibility.

Introduction

Kaveri State University set up its repository several years ago under the university library. It is organised into communities for each faculty and collections for theses, articles, conference papers and reports. Deposits are uneven, and the library has no systematic picture of who uses the repository or why many researchers do not deposit.

Review of literature (gap)

Studies of Indian institutional repositories mostly describe their growth in directories such as OpenDOAR, or report surveys of awareness among faculty. Fewer studies combine the repository's own usage data with a user survey for the same institution, which is needed to link depositor behaviour to reader demand. Recent DSpace 7 installations, with their new statistics interface, are also little studied. This dissertation addresses that gap.

Research questions

1. How has the repository's content grown by year, community and item type?
2. How is the content used, as measured by item views and file downloads?
3. Is the repository correctly exposed to harvesters through OAI-PMH?
4. How aware are faculty and research scholars of the repository, and how do they deposit?
5. What motives and barriers affect depositing, and do they differ by designation or discipline?
6. How does the repository's coverage of doctoral theses compare with the university's Shodhganga deposits?

Feasibility

• Data access: the librarian has agreed to share aggregate statistics exports; no individual user logs are used.
• Sample: faculty and research scholars across faculties are reachable through departmental heads.
• Tools: DSpace's administrative statistics, Excel and SPSS are available in the department lab.
• Ethics: informed consent on the questionnaire's first page, anonymous responses, aggregate reporting only.

Kaveri State University's DSpace repository was meant to become the permanent, open home of the university's research output. In practice, a few departments deposit regularly while most contribute little, doctoral theses appear in Shodhganga but not always in the local repository, and the library does not know how much the repository is used or by whom. Without evidence, the library cannot argue for a deposit mandate, staff for mediated deposit, or better metadata.

The problem this dissertation addresses is: what is the current state of content, usage and visibility of the university's institutional repository, and what factors explain faculty and research scholars' depositing behaviour? The study must combine system data with user responses and translate the findings into practical policy recommendations for the library and the university's research committee.

In scope

• One university's DSpace 7 repository; content and aggregate usage over the last five years.
• Faculty members and full-time research scholars across faculties.
• OAI-PMH verbs Identify, ListMetadataFormats, ListSets and a sample of ListRecords.
• Comparison of doctoral-thesis coverage with Shodhganga.

Out of scope

• Individual-level log analysis or tracking of identifiable users.
• Technical upgrading or reconfiguring of the repository.
• Undergraduate and postgraduate students as respondents.
• Citation impact of repository items.

The study follows a mixed descriptive design: secondary analysis of repository data plus a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.

Sampling: stratified by faculty with proportional allocation, target about 200 respondents; the actual response rate is reported honestly. Analysis: frequencies and percentages for awareness and behaviour; mean scores on Likert-type motive and barrier scales; Cronbach's alpha for each scale (0.7 or above treated as acceptable); chi-square tests of association between awareness or deposit status and designation, discipline and years of experience, with cells checked for expected counts.