Overview of 'A KARI and KAINet Institutional Repository Development Case Study'

This presentation illustrates the advantages of the employment of AgriDrupal and AgriOcenDSpace for the two repositories KAINet and the institutional repository of the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). KAINet (Kenya Agricultural Information Network) was created in 2006 and is not only an institutional but a national repository of scientific publications with a focus on agriculture and forestry. It was modeled on WebAGRIS and includes around 35,000 records from which most documents are not openly available. The overall objective is to facilitate access to agricultural information, strengthen the capacities to manage agricultural information and to promote standard tools and methodologies.

The initial problems with the setup, the service provider server and limited functionalities could be solved by the implementation of secure and manageable tools AgriOceanDSpace and AgriDrupal that are available on the AIMS platform. For this reason KAINet was moved to AgriDrupal which facilitates the indexing with the AGROVOC thesaurus as well as the opening of the repository, provides tools for ISS and RDF formats and the installation of the AGRIS AP. The KARI repository was facilitated by the implementation of AgriOceanDSpace due to its high standards for metadata, a OAI-PMH compliant and integrated controlled vocabularies.

The KAINet team faced also challenges during the implementations like the absence of institutional policies that support open access and the low awareness of copyright issues within the organization. Another obstacle was the absence of appropriate information management skills. As a preparation for other organizations who want to implement a repository, the speaker underlined the importance of system comparability, technical ICT skills and collaboration within the organization. During the whole implementation process the FAO team offered technical support. Another key to success was the additional support of the AGRIS community.