When
Oxfam began a project to create a website to handle their policy,
practice and research materials for professional audiences, they
realized there was no single, secure deposit location for their  digital
assets on poverty and suffering worldwide. Hence, they decided to
implement a repository that could store their digital assets in multiple
formats, have simple search and deposit functions to suit users with no
background in repository use, and therefore enable Oxfam to showcase
their large and ever evolving output of research, program learning and
policy information to a global audience.

Having decided they
needed a repository, Oxfam chose to implement a hosted solution because
they lacked dedicated resources in-house to develop, manage and support
one. By partnering with Open Repository, they received a customized
repository: the Oxfam iLibrary comes  from a “tried and tested” company
which incorporates advanced open source features and upgrades. This
removed the internal technical demands required of an in-house solution,
allowing Oxfam to focus on developing the content of the repository
with their staff worldwide and ensuring quality metadata so their
content is easy to find.

Speaking as the new system went live,
Robert Cornford, Communications Manager from Oxfam GB said, “We have had
a very interesting experience working with Open Repository to establish
the Oxfam iLibrary, from working out a classification system for our
very varied content through developing a remote deposit structure so
people across our programme offices with limited IT experience can
upload materials, to integrating with a separate website. We now have a
repository where we can capture our experience for internal programme
development, and share our knowledge externally easily and quickly
through the website.  Our repository, the Oxfam iLibrary, will have an
immediate impact on our own ways of working internally and, with our new
information website now live, will make our content available to
external audiences across the world.”

To learn more about why Oxfam chose a repository and how it was implemented, read their case study.

To
see the new Oxfam website for development professionals, fed from the
Oxfam iLibrary, visit to the Oxfam Policy and Practice website.