Abstract:
The status and the prestige of higher education
institutions depend on the quality, visibility and
accessibility of their research. Globally, research
indicates that valuable research output originates
from both public and private higher education
institutions, but the results of scholarship are
often not archived and curated sustainably. Poor
scholarship curation and lack of research
visibility deter higher education institutions from
taking their rightful place in higher education
and higher education research communities. This
article reports on investigations into digital
scholarship curation trends in a purposefully
selected target group of private and public higher
education institutions in Southern Africa.
Empirical research was triangulated with
webometric analysis to derive solutions and best
practices to ensure sustainable scholarship
curation in institutional repositories. In all, 16
institutions were selected for the study. All the selected 16 institutions were subjected to
webometric analysis but only 10 of the institutions
completed the questionnaire. The study reveals
a number of gaps affecting the effectiveness of institutional repositories in higher education
institutions in Southern Africa. These gaps include
true understanding of the nature and the
importance of interoperability in open access.
Also, collaboration within the higher education
institutions, as well as external networks, is
lacking. There is lack of awareness and
knowledge regarding scholarship curation, and
the value that web visibility holds for the entire
institutions. The study recommends that institutions
should include both social and technical aspects
of scholarship curation.
