University of Nairobi Digital Repository UoN

Overview

The University of Nairobi Digital Repository is the open-access institutional repository of the University of Nairobi (UoN), Kenya's oldest university. Hosted at https://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/ and powered by DSpace, it collects, preserves, manages, and provides worldwide access to the digital scholarly outputs of the university and its community.

History and Development

The repository was established in November 2012, with its registry record first deposited on 20 November 2012. Since inception, it has grown exponentially, expanding from its initial holdings to more than 100,000 items. In February 2013, the University of Nairobi became a foundation member of BioMed Central, enabling automatic article feeds into the repository. The repository is registered with both ROAR and OpenDOAR, and operates under the Creative Commons license for staff-authored content.

Collections and Holdings

The repository holds theses and dissertations, journal articles, book chapters, conference papers, working papers, images, audio, and video files, as well as inaugural lectures and distinguished speeches. Among its most valuable holdings are rare historical documents about the University of Nairobi and materials on the East African Protectorate dating from the colonial period. The repository has registered more than 4 million downloads globally in recent periods, contributing significantly to UoN's performance in international webometrics rankings.

Access and Usage

Content is freely accessible to any user worldwide. The repository supports OAI-PMH harvesting and operates as a non-profit, non-commercial facility. Submissions are accepted from UoN academic staff, researchers, and students.