Institutional Repository

The UMass Dartmouth repository stores and disseminates the academic output of the UMass Dartmouth community. It showcases the University’s scholarly work, facilitates collaboration, and provides a mechanism for the UMassD community to comply with regulations governing open access of funded research.

Why an institutional repository?

An institutional repository (IR) provides a centralized space to collect and provide access to the intellectual output of an organization. Many universities around the world, including our regional peer institutions, have established institutional repositories to share and promote faculty research and publications. The Claire T. Carney Library believes that the implementation of an IR for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth is an excellent opportunity to publicize the academic accomplishments of our faculty and enhance the reputation of the university.

The Library is also cognizant of the Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP) 2022 memorandum requiring that publications and supporting data resulting from federally funded research be made publicly available. An institutional repository provides a central location for UMass Dartmouth faculty to provide Open Access versions of their federally funded research to comply with the new access policies that federal funding agencies must enact by December 31, 2025.

Why Esploro?

In Spring 2024, a team of faculty and librarians evaluated several different repository solutions before ultimately deciding on Esploro, the institutional repository software offered by Ex Libris. Esploro offers a modern and user-friendly interface, automated features to help keep the repository content up-to-date with the latest faculty publications, and easy integration with our library catalog, which also runs on an Ex Libris platform.

The repository will be released in stages throughout 2025. The initial rollout and public launch in fall 2025 will prioritize full-time faculty. Staff, administrators, and part-time faculty will be added to the IR beginning in the fall semester, but may be added earlier by request.

Department Rollout Schedule

During the “Rollout to Departments” phase, our liasion librarians will contact each department to gather information for the repository. The table below gives the order in which departments will be contacted by their liaison.

Faculty and staff producing scholarly output will work with the library to create a profile and add content to the repository. During the rollout phase, liaison librarians will reach out to each department to collect initial information to populate faculty profiles. See our department rollout schedule for the order in which departments will be contacted.

Once your profile is set up, you will be able to log in and add/edit content yourself. For more information, check out our guide to using the UMassD Institutional repository.

Students will not have researcher profiles, but theses and dissertations will be added to the repository by the library.

Questions and comments regarding the repository can be directed to repository@umassd.edu