Frequently Asked Questions

What is Demetrius?

Demetrius is the official name given to the ANU's Institutional Repository (IR). This is to distinguish the repository – which includes policies, procedures and the entire ANU community – from the DSpace software that currently powers the repository.

Who was Demetrius?

Demetrius of Phaleron (Phalerum) was the first custodian of the Great Library at Alexandria: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrius_of_Phalerum

What's an 'Institutional Repository'?

A service to provide storage for electronic scholarly materials and advice on best practice related to this. Materials might include images, interviews, film, field notes, papers, datasets: anything created by a researcher or other academic that is in electronic format and is deemed to be in a more-or-less final state (we are not interested in rough drafts!). We are willing to accept anything you want to store, but materials that are still evolving may not be appropriate. We are not a data back-up service, nor is our use mandated. We are not merely software. By becoming a depositor with Demetrius, you become a partner – a part – of the repository.

What can I deposit? What is 'material'?

The range of content we accept is so broad that it's hard to be specific. In general, we will store on your behalf any academic output, whether it is primary research, papers or teaching and learning resources. Any academic, researcher or project can use the service. All the material should be in digital form: it doesn't matter whether it's sound, images, text or data sets.

Why should I give you my material?

Material deposited with the Demetrius is not 'given' to anyone. The depositor retains the right to:

• Remove the material; however, we will retain a tombstone metadata record.
• Modify the material if there is an error; however, we will ensure that this is annotated in the material's record.
• Keep their own copies of the material and use those copies for whatever purpose they see fit.
• You can deposit your material in other repositories as well. We're not exclusive.

A depositor, or their nominated successor, retains all rights to the material. The only rights surrendered to us are those we need to make copies of files (otherwise we can't make backups), and those we need to make material available on the web (but only if you deem it appropriate). See Copyright.

What is a 'tombstone' item?

A tombstone is a record of a previously deposited Item. The Item may have been removed at the request of the depositor, or it may have been replaced by a more accurate or revised version. Regardless of the reason, a metadata record will be retained with a statement that explains:

• The Item used to be here.
• The Item has been removed/revised.
• Why it was removed/revised.
• If appropriate, a pointer to the most recent or next-most-recent version.

In the virtual world, it's too easy to make things simply disappear or alter them without any obvious record that they were changed.

It's not appropriate for everyone to access my material. What can you do?

It's your material. If in your view material you have deposited should not be available to the general public, then we will lock off access. However, we will not lock access to the Item's metadata record. People will not be able to see the original Item, but they will always be able to see its associated metadata and Handle.

I've found an error, how do I make changes?

Generally, you won't have the rights necessary in the repository system to make changes to a deposited Item or its associated metadata. You will need to contact the Repository staff. This is to ensure that changes – when necessary – are made with the appropriate controls and checks. The following changes can be made to the deposited material or its metadata:

• To change deposited material, it will generally be replaced with a new, revised Item. The original Item will either be removed (with a tombstone metadata record left in its stead); or will be annotated as having been superseded. This decision is made in consultation with you, as depositor. In either case, there will be a pointer to the revised/corrected Item.
• To change metadata , the metadata content will be annotated to indicate that the metadata has been revised. The incorrect metadata may be kept for comparison purposes.

All changes will indicate when the change was made, who changed it, why, and who authorised this. Usually, we will make the change, but you will authorise it.

How do I benefit from the repository?

We undertake to store your material in multiple places on multiple systems, to avoid the potential loss of data from the damage or obsolescence of physical storage devices. We undertake to help you store your material in archival file formats and to migrate these files into new forms as old formats become obsolete. Archival formats aren't usually the same as those you use on a daily basis. We undertake to help you disseminate your material in new ways, as these become available. We undertake to provide you with a safe, secure, sustainable storage mechanism where you can store digital research material. This store is not just for you: it is for posterity to ensure that your material will be available to researchers in the future.

What does it cost me?

The service is currently free, although we may introduce charges at some future date. There are no plans to do so at this stage and we anticipate there would be much consultation before any costs were included. There is a time requirement: associated metadata usually needs to be written up and uploaded with the files. While we can train a research assistant or administrator to do this, the metadata – the information that tells us why the file is important – is usually only in a researcher's head, and needs to be written down.

What file formats should I use?

In specific cases, we provide advice on appropriate archival formats and can devote some resources to conversion if that's necessary. Please contact repository staff for advice on file formats.

What about digitisation?

If you have analogue material you want to digitise (video tapes, papers, slides), we can provide some advice as to how to go about this, but are currently unable to undertake this for you.

Can I have my own collection?

We organise the repository into Communities. Each Community consists of some organisational node in the university structure. It can be a department or a centre, it can be a project or a faculty. It will rarely be an individual. What we are looking for is some part of the structure that has both continuity and a parent organisation: should Project X come to an end, we need to know that Department Y will undertake to make decisions about X's repository community. The Community can decide what collections it wants to have, and how these are constituted. If your department is willing to have a Community and assigns you a collection, then that's fine with us.

What's an 'Item'?

An Item is a unit of storage within the DSpace software (which currently powers the Demetrius repository). It consists of:

• One or more files. A single deposited image, for instance.
• The associated metadata: what the image is of, who took the photograph, why, etc
• A 'handle'. This provides a long-term mechanism for referring to the stored Item that doesn't rely on hyperlinks: everyone has experienced broken links on the Web and the handle rectifies this problem.

What's a 'Handle'?

An arbitrary and persistent identifier for an Item. When assigned, it can't be changed. Worldwide, there are projects to create web-friendly methods of identifying content that work independently of hyperlinks, so that if the content is moved, it will still be automatically findable. A handle in the DSpace software that runs Demetrius is 'known' to be one of these systems. Think of an ISBN or ISSN for Web pages.

Who or what is a 'Depositor'?

The person responsible for the material being deposited. They have rights and responsibilities, and either hold copyright or represent copyright holders. The person who actually presses buttons to get files stored is not the depositor: they are acting as the depositor's agent.

How much space can I have?

We do not assign data quotas. The disk space you require will be made available: archival file formats are usually much chunkier than their display or daily use equivalents, and we will always opt for the archival format. Assume that there is as much space as you need.

Is it compulsory?

No. However, it is possible the Federal Government may require the deposition of Federally funded research output in the future.