Institutional repository resources are different from the resources that result from users’ searches of online databases. Here are a few important differences—repository resources span a wide array of academic disciplines, they may require customized software to use, and they are rarely self-contained resources that can stand on their own without reference to other resources for use and interpretation.

Our objectives for Activity 4 will be to learn firsthand from repository users—first-time, one-time and intermittent users, repeat users, and nonusers—about their use of, expectations, needs for institutional repository system functionality and repository content, and suggestions for improvement. Also, we will find out why people do not use institutional repositories and how and why nonusers would become institutional-repository users. Activity 4 subtasks are: (1) drafting, pre-testing and refining web-based questionnaires for nonusers, first-time or intermittent users, and repeat users, (2) collecting data, and (3) analyzing data.