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Short abstract:

The role of institutional repositories in Germany has changed over the past 30 years – from document servers to the concept of “Next Generation Repositories”. The presentation identifies and addresses some of the challenges along this path of becoming future-proof information infrastructures.

Long abstract:

The role of Institutional Repositories in Germany has significantly changed over the past 30 years. Initially serving as document servers for their institutional members, they collected and archived qualification theses to document the intellectual output of their respective institutions. However it had become evident that serving as passive institutional archives was insufficient; instead, they needed to be more integrated into all stages of the research cycle. This shift in self-understanding is also apparent in the science-policy and infrastructural reform movement of repositories. The Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) has emphasized the need for repository advancement since 2017 through its initiative "Next Generation Repositories." The "Report on Repository Survey in Europe" (Shearer et al., 2023) highlights the current challenges in operating repositories: the need for contemporary and interoperable software solutions for repository operation, consistent implementation of "good practice" for metadata, long-term archiving, and usage statistics, as well as adequate visibility within the scientific community.

Expanding on this, the "Pro OAR DE" project at the Berlin School for Library and Information Science identified and tackled major challenges repositories face in advancing into cutting-edge information infrastructures. Our presentation will highlight findings from a recent interview study involving stakeholders from German institutional repositories. We will delve into the connections between institutional repositories and current research information systems (CRIS), along with the significance of preprints. As we will illustrate, institutional repositories possess the requisite tools, yet incentives and change management strategies are necessary for their transformation into competitive open science infrastructures.