Policies, Open Access and Cooperation as Factors Influencing Geospatial Collections in Libraries and Institutional Repositories

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore whether in today's changing landscape libraries institutional repositories are used, in order to develop collections of locally produced geospatial data. Furthermore, this study will explore the use of policies in developing geospatial collections in order to reveal whether this tool is necessary for librarians who deal with geospatial collections. Finally, it will also detect the role of cooperation in respect to the development of geospatial collections. This research is addressed to librarians working on geospatial collections so as to ascertain their perceptions since they are considered to be the professionals leading changes. The results demonstrate that Map/GIS libraries, along with analog geospatial collections, tend to develop collections from the data their academic community produces. Librarians seem to be convinced that the formulation of policies, the open access to the data, and the establishment of cooperation among stakeholders will be the critical points to accomplish this goal.