Digital Repositories as Harbingers of Open Access in India

Open Access (OA) is a noble cause as it removes all hurdles from free access to scholarly works and promotes knowledge sharing. The OA movement is strengthened by Institutional Repositories (IRs). IRs are based on institute-specific requirements, workflow pattern, metadata, and other related standards for different kinds of digital documents, search and retrieval requirements, and user interfaces at various levels. In India, some elite educational and research institutes such as the Indian Statistical Institute, some CSIR Laboratories, IITs, and IIMs have taken significant initiatives in building IRs. In addition, a few Universities, such as the Central University of Hyderabad, are working on building IRs. According to various databases, the total number of Indian IRs exceeds 40, but out of these only 25 are functional, while the rest of them are either non-functional or inaccessible. The present chapter is an effort to cover the various aspects of functional IRs in India.