The repository mashup map has today been upgraded to include similar growth graphs for each repository. The graphs are plotted using the same data from ROAR, and can be seen by clicking on a repository, and the selecting the ‘Growth’ tab.

If there are any other new features that you would like to see on the maps, please leave a comment!

A quick technical update to the repository mashups map – it now loads approximately 40% faster! The map mashup tends to load quite quickly, but then sits there whilst it then downloads the data file containing all of the data about the repositories on the map. A lot of this information is the OpenDOAR repository descriptions, but this information isn’t actually viewed very often – only when a user clicks on the OpenDOAR tab of a repository.

So the latest version only downloads the OpenDOAR data for each repository when you click on it, saving a bit of time.

There has also been a bit of work going on behind the scenes trying to make the maps perform better in your browser. They now close more cleanly, ensuring that they do not use up resources on your computer once you move on to view another page. Over the next few weeks it is hoped that we can reduce the loading time of the maps by almost a half, but at the same time introduce some growth graphs for each repository. Stay tuned!

There are now over 920 repositories shown on the map, containing a whopping 8 million items between them!

There are now over 740 repositories represented on the map, and this number is growing each week. Remember, if your repository is missing, but is listed in ROAR, then use the locator interface to place it on the map. If your repository is not listed in ROAR, then list it!

The new red dots on the map represent BEPress‘ Digital Commons repositories. Since this is the next largest software system below DSpace and EPrints, we thought it deserved a category all to itself.

There are now 67.14 percent of the known repositories marked on the map. If your repository is not yet shown on the map, please register it with ROAR and OpenDOAR if it has not been already, and please use the locator facility to place it correctly on the maps. We’d love 100 percent coverage!

The ‘repository size icons’  option allows you to see the relative size of different repositories. Plotted using logarithmic scales, you can now find not just the geographical spread of repositories, but also the distribution of repository sizes across different locations.

The traffic to the site continues to grow, as do the number of links to the site:

1. The University of ‘Lyon 2′ has written an article about the maps entitled ‘Lyon 2 est sur la carte‘ (Lyon 2 is on the map). An English translation is available.
2. OpenDOAR have now officially launched their API, and use the repository map mashup as an example of the API in use.
3. In a Japanese-language ‘Current Awareness Portal‘ there is a blog entry about the maps.
4. Peter Suber’s ‘Open Access News‘ blog once again mentions the maps, and the interface available for users to position, or re-position their repositories.
5. http://openaccess.uib.no/ mentions the maps as ‘Ny oversikt over publiseringsarkiv’ (New overview of publications archive).
6. http://www.librariansworld.com/ includes a page about the maps.

The problem to date has been the collection of the geographical location of each repository. So far nearly a hundred have been located by hand, whilst the remaining have been located using an IP address –> location tool (http://hostip.info). Those located using their IP address may be in the wrong location either due to being placed generically (e.g. in the middle of their city) or because they are hosted in a different place to their institution. However there are several hundred other repositories indexed by ROAR and OpenDOAR which need locating on the map.

The solution? There is now an interface to allow repository administrators to either place a missing repository, or update an existing repository location using a Google map. The same interface also prompts administrators of repositories not listed in ROAR or OpenDOAR to register with those directories.

The new interface can be found at http://maps.repository66.org/where/

Another natural side effect of having more repository markers on the screen is that it is harder to find the repository that you want when zoomed out. The answer to this has been the addition of ‘tool tips’. When you put your mouse over a repository marker it now gives the name of the repository so that you can ensure you have the correct repository before clicking on it.

1. First up – the well-known Open Access News Blog by Peter Suber. The entry talks about the new OpenDOAR API and how this could be used to create mashups and goes on to say “The most exciting example to date is the mash-up of OpenDOAR and Google Maps from Repository66“. See the full blog post: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/2007_03_18…
2. Next up is Richard Jones’ blog post Repository 66 and the Google Map Adventure
3. Another post comes from the EPrints team at Southampton University: http://trac.eprints.org/projects/iar/wiki/Export
4. Charles W. Bailey, Jr. in his much-read DigitalKoans blog writes about the maps: Repository 66: OA Digital Repository Map Mashup
5. David Prosser from SPARC Europe has written about the maps in the site’s “What’s New” section.
6. The pintini blog has a French entry about the maps entitled Sur la routes des DI.
7. A Japanese language blog points to the maps: http://b.hatena.ne.jp/entry/http://maps.repository66.org/
8. Finally, plenty of traffic is coming via del.icio.us where it was first tagged by JISC’s Amber Thomas (thanks Amber!) and now by others. See: http://del.icio.us/url/a09… for details.

Just in case you wondered, the data was collected by Google’s Web Analytics system – another great service from Google!