Googlepository and the university library

The development of an increasing array of tools for storing, organising, managing, and searching electronic resources poses some interesting questions for those in the Higher Education sector, not least of which are: what role do repositories have in this new information environment? What effect is Google having on the information-seeking strategies of students, researchers and teachers? Where do libraries fit within the information continuum? And ultimately, what services should they look to provide for their users? The concept of Google as a repository was introduced at a recent JISC conference. Hitherto, it has been speculated that Google might be considered to be a digital library. This viewpoint provided a catalyst for the process of considering the differences between Google and repositories. We have evaluated this in terms of an exploration of their features and the services they provide. This leads on to a discussion of the potential value of these services to content contributors and consumers. In the long term, this will be expressed by users' engagement with the services and tools available to them.