New project team photos

As at previous project meetings, after the day's proceedings were completed we took a team photo to commemorate our meeting in London on 16th June (above). Left to right: Ian Tilsed (Exeter), Gillian Still (Exeter), Nicola Cockarill (Plymouth), Jodie Double (Leeds), Rachel Proudfoot (Leeds), Sarah Molloy (Queen Mary), Lizzie Dipple (Symplectic).

Since Ellie had to leave very swiftly to catch her train she's in a separate earlier photo (below). Ellie James (Keele).


posted by: Lizzie Dipple

Saying hello, saying goodbye: project team changes

In recent weeks we've had a couple of changes to the RePosit team, which have affected our project work in different ways. First, Gill Still started working on RePosit at Exeter, to give extra support to what Jill Evans has been covering. This means a fresh pair of eyes reviewing what we're doing and a new perspective – for which we are very grateful, and it is already proving to be of real benefit.

Sadly, very recently Richard Jones left the project team, having finished working for Symplectic Ltd. We will miss his technical insights as well as his clever ways of thinking around any problem that occurs to turn it to advantage. Unfortunately, though, before Richard left Symplectic, he was not able to complete the Repository Tools implementation at Plymouth (and therefore not for Exeter either). Although others at Symplectic have taken over working on the implementations, this unexpected delay for going live with Repository Tools does have knock-on effects for the project at Plymouth and Exeter – since, although they can (and have) been advocating, explaining benefits and embedding the concept within management, neither institution can start advocating deposit at the user level, nor running training sessions, until the systems are linked and live. Therefore, with just three months to go before the stated project end date, we are reviewing what we can do to still deliver the desired project outcomes.


posted by: Lizzie Dipple

Collaborative project team

Being part of this JISC project team has turned out to be very enjoyable and a fantastic learning experience for us all. This is due to the diverse roles of the project team in the different Universities and the professional expertise of Symplectic.

Roles range across the Library, the Central Research Office through to Academic Systems. There is also a range of roles within the library giving the perspectives of the Library Liaison staff through to Electronic Resource staff. Having all these different perspectives helps us all to understand how our own University works and was very helpful when putting together the advocacy plans (where we shared good practice).

It has also proven informative to share the experiences of the partner Universities at different stages of their repository implementation. For example those of us who have never had a repository before can learn from both the successes and mistakes of others further down the line. One key message that the project team have learned is that you can't just raise awareness of the repository once, as a one-off exercise, there has to be continuous promotion. Also the more established repositories can also learn new tricks: for example, colleagues have been very interested how Keele has linked its publications database (and repository) to individual staff webpages. This has encouraged academic colleagues to keep their entries up to date (and deposit), as it instantaneously updates their web page, all from one system!

I'm sure there will be more shared knowledge and experiences next year as we move into the advocacy stage.

Ellie James

Keele University

Project Plan post 5: Project Team Relationships and End User Engagement

Project Management Team:

Project Director: Bo Middleton, Head of e-Strategy and Development for Leeds University Library

Symplectic Lead: Richard Jones, Head of Repository Systems at Symplectic Ltd

Project Manager:Lizzie Dipple, Communications & Project Coordination Manager at Symplectic Ltd
(time allocated: 0.2 FTE)


Project Team:

University of Exeter:
Ian Tilsed, Head of Academic Systems
Jill Evans, Digital Library Officer

Keele University:
Ellie James, Research Planning and Project Manager

University of Leeds:
Jodie Double, Digital Repositories Manager for Leeds University Library
Rachel Proudfoot, Repository Officer for Leeds University Library

University of Plymouth:
Nicola Cockarill, Senior Subject Librarian with the added remit of research support

Queen Mary University of London:
Sarah Molloy, Research Support Librarian


The RePosit project will support researchers at the project partner institutions through advocacy activities and training workshops. It will also engage with them via the survey questionnaire which will solicit feedback on the usefulness of the deposit tool, and other places where it should be made available to them. The project will engage with research organisers and managers in a similar way, offering the project workshops and user community space as forums for determining the appropriate strategy for increasing uptake, enhancements to the software, and methods of driving policy change. The user community space is intended for all members of the deposit community, not just those at the partner institutions.

Posted by: Lizzie Dipple