Is my repository eligible to join?
IRUS is provided to institutions in the United Kingdom, for Jisc members, in Australia and New Zealand, in conjunction with CAVAL, and in the United States, in partnership with Lyrasis.
See participating repositories.
Prerequisites for joining
There are two protocols central to the operation of the service:
- the Tracker Protocol (see Implement for details of the tracker, and how it is implemented in the variety of repository software systems we are currently working with.)
- the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH).
How do I join?
If you are interested in joining IRUS:
- United Kingdom
- Please contact help@jisc.ac.uk
- Australia and New Zealand
- Please contact irus@caval.edu.au
- United States
- Please contact hannah.rosen@lyrasis.org
The IRUS team or one of our partner organisation will provide information about what is required for your repository software provider. Generally, the key steps are as follows.
Set up process
Step 1: Implement the tracker with test endpoint
This may be as simple asking your repository software provider or changing a setting. See our Implement page for details. The IRUS team will let you know the test endpoint if needed.
Once this is done, contact the IRUS helpdesk to let us know.
Step 2: Ensure we are receiving valid tracker messages
IRUS team verify that we are successfully receiving valid messages. We will liaise with you or your software provider if there any issues.
Step 3: Switch to production endpoint and let us know
Once we have confirmed the messages look good, you can start sending to one of our production endpoints. We will tell you what this is. Let us know when this has been done.
Step 4: Metadata harvesting
Item metadata (i.e. title, authors, item types etc.) isn't sent in the tracker messages but gathered later as part of the ingest process. Our preferred method is an OAI interface, but we can also work with other solutions where we can request metadata using a unique identifier (additional fee may apply).
Step 5: Process data into statistics
We start processing your data into statistics as part of our normal daily and monthly processing. Daily stats will start appearing in IRUS after 3 days. For our standard monthly reports, these will appear within the first week of the following month.