Digital Library/ IR Summary

In finding information  about the eight digital libraries and institutional repositories that  i chose for my assignment, the recurring theme that I noticed was the preference for open access and open source.  None of these libraries or IRs wanted anything to do with pre-packaged or proprietary software.  For some, such as HathiTrust and Chronicling America, the freedom of an open source platform was a necessity for the ambition of their projects.  For others, such as SMARTech and Vtext, the use of an open source software such as DSpace made financial sense.  All of these digital collectives embraced some degree of open access, from published access to self archiving (arXiv.org in particular).