Repository Systems for Creative and Immersive Scholarship in Open Knowledge

Abstract

This presentation introduces Trust by Design, a framework actively developed by a practitioner-researcher with guidance from her doctorate dissertation chair who is also the co-presenter of this paper. The framework aims to guide ethical, inclusive decision-making in institutional repository (IR) management. It responds to real-world challenges faced by repository managers navigating the inclusion of immersive, AI-influenced, and non-traditional scholarly outputs. Virtual reality (VR) experiences, digital performances, student-produced media, and interactive exhibits often fall outside traditional metadata schemas, lack persistent identifiers like DOIs, and raise unresolved questions around ownership, access, and preservation. These works are academically significant but remain underrepresented in repositories originally designed for static, text-based formats. Drawing from doctoral research in educational leadership and digital librarianship, this session invites attendees to participate in a live, anonymous survey via QR code at the beginning of the session. Survey results will be interpreted in real time and discussed interactively with the audience to model collaborative stewardship. This presentation situates institutional repositories as open, immersive systems mirroring iLRN2026’s theme “From Plato’s Cave to Open Immersive Societies” and reframes them not as passive storage platforms but as dynamic infrastructures supporting equitable knowledge creation and preservation.