“Latest News”: EPrints Meets Web 2.0

Coleman, Anita Sundaram and Roback, Joseph (2007) “Latest News”: EPrints Meets Web 2.0.

Abstract

This is a presentation at the Open Repositories 2007 Conference, San Antonio, Texas, January 2007. A key Web 2.0 tenet is that users add value and expand the usefulness of the software. EPrints, originally envisioned as software for building a digital repository, is now being extended in many ways by its users. We report on the development of “Latest News” a small feature, we added to our EPrints-2.0 based archive, dLIST. Latest News is wildly popular as a social networking tool with the dLIST communities. dLIST is a disciplinary, cross-institutional archive for the Information Sciences with about 10 editors who connect the fragmented communities in the related areas. It has become obvious that a News module that is more blog-like whereby multiple editors can post News to stay in touch with their respective communities would greatly enhance our efforts to grow active users for the repository. We have now developed Latest News as an EPrints 3.0 plug-in. Scholarly behavior, including self- archiving, varies by discipline but services/features such as News may help all scholars to see themselves as active participants not just in repository growth and use but also its design and software development. The plug-in is available from the Eprints Registry and dLIST and feedback is welcome.