The original concept of an institutional repository was to provide a place where the intellectual products of an institution could be preserved in digital format. Together with the preservation aspect, the repository provided a means of aggregating or collecting this information as well as a means of disseminating these products. Typically the research output in these repositories would be traditional research products such as theses, dissertations and articles (often in pre-print or post-print form).

Increasingly however they also began to collect occasional papers, presentations, inaugural lectures and other forms of academic output. Some of this output was born-digital, whereas others had to be digitized and as the advantages of using digital material became apparent there was a move to convert the repository into a digital library, with material already in analogue format converted to digital holdings. This was usually material either originating from the institution (such as annual reports from sections, photographs and plans), or material to which the institution had access via donations (collections of papers and manuscripts donated to the institution). As these digital libraries evolved in the Higher Education Institutions they were usually entrusted to the library services as being the service knowledgeable in preservation and metadata. Academic Libraries began evolving into hybrid libraries, with large print holdings, but also digital holdings through both the repositories and holdings of e-books, journals and databases.

However when CPUT Libraries began to investigate the possibility of creating a repository it was immediately felt that this concept was too narrow. A platform was looked for that would be able to provide not only the means of collecting, preserving and disseminating the intellectual output, as with institutional repositories, but also the means to host digitized collections of material already in the institution’s possession, as with a hybrid library and then further than that also the means to develop this into a service capable of duplicating the professional service functions offered in print format, and also present in e-book, journal and database collections, through a common digital platform. The focus was extended to include non-institutional materials as well as those normally associated with repositories.

The original impetus for repositories (and in some cases, even now the main concern) has been technological with platform, program, connections and general IT concerns being the prime mover. CPUT Libraries however, realized the service importance of the proposed platform and management decisions and based on this realization has led to it being the first South African Higher Education Institution with a repository, digital library or digital service centre hosted abroad.

This paper explores not only the path which CPUT Libraries followed, but also looks at the rationale behind the decisions taken in this regard, and provides important insights for institutions wishing to embark on this path.