SHERPA‐LEAP: A consortial model for the creation and support of academic institutional repositories

The purpose of the paper is to introduce SHERPA‐LEAP, a model for the consortial development, population and support of e‐prints repositories.

The organisational and technical structures of the consortium are described, including a brief summary of central and local resource responsibilities. Some positive and negative aspects of a consortial approach to institutional repository development, and of the SHERPA‐LEAP model in particular, are identified. Outstanding issues and future plans for the consortium are outlined.

SHERPA‐LEAP is shown to be succeeding in its aims of developing and supporting e‐prints repositories within the federal University of London. Some lessons learned from the SHERPA‐LEAP approach are identified, but the SHERPA‐LEAP consortial model is found to have been mostly beneficial to the participating institutions. In particular, the networking and experience‐sharing opportunities which any consortial solution will facilitate are highly‐valued by the SHERPA‐LEAP partners.

The paper is intended to help to inform the decision making of institutions and consortia, which are considering consortial solutions to the establishment, and maintenance of institutional repositories.