User empowerment has been one of the key areas of focus recommended in a report by the Product Visioning Working Group, which is part of the DSpace Leadership Group run by Lyrasis. The Working Group put an emphasis on enabling DSpace users to get more out of their repositories while avoiding outsourcing functions to a vendor or hiring a technical expert. In this session I will demonstrate how the World Bank implements end-user empowering functionality, as well as repository management empowerment measures, present and future.

DiVA is the largest repository in Sweden for publications with 50 members and it is unique since it is run as a consortium. Since 2001 DiVA has provided its members with a structure for publishing their publications in a reliable manner. This presentation will focus on the history of DiVA from its start as a project to host PhD thesis at Uppsala university to the system it is today, through the lens of being a consortium. DiVA is a collaborative repository where each member has a stake in the development of the system. From the early days where there were few members and often direct contact, to 2008 when the system was updated and the members increased and there was need for more formalized governing structures. DiVA has continued to be run as a consortium, which has greatly benefited the system and our members, allowing for insight and a stake in development of the system. Currently DiVA is developing its next phase and both management and members see the benefits from the consortium model.

The Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), a Brazilian public health institute manages a wide range of collections, including research data, archival, bibliographic, museological, architectural, urbanistic and archaeological, and biological. In 2018, Fiocruz implemented the Preservation Policy for Scientific and Cultural Collections, aiming to improve access and preservation of its collections. Specifically focusing on digital preservation, Fiocruz formed a dedicated working group to develop the Fiocruz Digital Preservation Program. This program advocates compliance with the OAIS and establishes a basic framework that all collections must incorporate into their digital preservation plans. Fiocruz selected Archivematica as the digital preservation repository due to its integration capabilities with Fiocruz access platforms. The participatory model employed for policy and program implementation in digital preservation has proven effective. It has raised awareness among stakeholders and facilitated alignment of knowledge and transparency. The lessons learnt by Fiocruz in the digital preservation repository implementation process serves as a valuable example for similar institutions in Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) and other regions, highlighting the importance of collaborative efforts in implementing digital preservation strategies.

Repositories with policies that allow users to submit content may save time in processing submissions, but do introduce issues with maintaining lines of communication with all submitters. As repositories grow in size, keeping track of all individuals and units who are using the repository can become difficult. Repository managers need to balance the frequency and length of communication in order to not overwhelm or annoy recipients. This presentation will outline the communication strategy related to a recent DSpace 7 upgrade for a large repository (more than 100,000 items). The presenter will share the communication plan related to the software upgrade, some of the tools that are used to keep track of communication with individual collections and users, and feedback from user surveys related to library support of the repository.

HAL is a multidisciplinary open archive for the dissemination of scientific knowledge. It is part of the French Ministry’s roadmap for research infrastructures and the National Plan for Open Science.

Episciences overlay journals and Peer Community In (PCI) are two types of overlay services offering peer review of preprints and operating on top of several preprint servers. A common challenge with this type of service is the lack of standards for interoperability with open repositories.

This problem of interoperability is solved by the COAR Notify initiative proposed by COAR. HAL, Episciences and PCI are among the first to have adopted this initiative, making effective use of several use cases supported by the recommendations. This presentation will explain how we have used COAR Notify to implement easier workflows for researchers and how it is helping to promote the submission of preprints to HAL. The new services also offer greater visibility and encourage the use of overlay services such as Episciences and PCI.

We hope that this presentation will generate interest in the adoption of COAR Notify among managers of open-repositories and pre-publication servers. One of HAL's ambitions for the future is to be able to offer more overlay services to researchers.

This lightning talk will present the argument that our distributed network of repositories has much in common - both in terms of intent and in terms of technology - with the emerging "Fediverse" of social-network services. The Fediverse represents an opportunity for repositories to radically increase user-engagement, by easily and seamlessly linking them with the new generation of social-media platforms. The talk will argue that repositories have an opportunity to engage with the Fediverse, to help usher in a new paradigm of more user-centric scholarly communication.

Global insinuation is the near absence of African data and information for knowledge sharing. This cannot be understood to mean lack of documented evidence but their unavailability for global access and use. Though Africa, particularly Nigerian scholars are at cutting edge of research endeavours and very prolific, only few resources published in international outlets are available for use globally. The result is a misconception and biases in assessment and inferences concerning Africa. However, many traditional print repositories have data of rich African heritage outside the reach of the global communities. Consequently, efforts were put in place in Nigeria to open up her greatest rich heritage as preserved in the National library of Nigeria. The Library engaged in the implementation of the National Repository of Nigeria (NRN) as an effort to have Nigerian data represented globally. The Repository which aim is to bridge the gap in the underrepresentation of Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage was deployed in 2022. The paper intends to present efforts of the Library to open up over five million cultural heritage of Nigeria which were deposited since its establishment. Some of the success stories and challenges especially in the areas of competencies and technology will be discuss.