Better Together: Growing Digital Repositories through Community-building and Collaboration

The California State University system is the largest public university system in the United States but does not have many shared services amongst the 23 campuses. The digital repository ecosystem with the CSUs has grown from individual campus repositories with no shared governance structure to a three-pronged systemwide service that has a steering committee, working groups, shared documentation/guidelines, and an annual meeting. But growing together isn't always easy! The campuses have different resources, different expertise levels, and very different needs. This presentation examines how we have gone from an individual campus approach with no centralized infrastructure to one of shared repositories, shared documentation, workflows by consensus, and collaborative co-working sessions. Over the past decade, we have created governance structures, committees and communication paths, open forums and annual meetings. We have worked to bring each other along, sharing knowledge and work across this large (and under-funded) system. This collaborative approach has been slow at times, but with our ScholarWorks Institutional Repository, the CSU Digital Archives, and the CSU Open Journals, we are working together to build our skills and capacity across the system – together.