International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 6, Issue 1, January-2015 598 ISSN 2229-5518 IJSER © 2015 http://www.ijser.org Institutional Repository: A Road Map to Open Access and Resources Sharing in Nigeria (Issues and Challenges) Sani Murtala Ridwan Kashim Ibrahim Library, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria Kaduna-Nigeria Contact: sanimridwan@gmail.com Phone no. +2348068877574 +201116942299 Abstract- Nigeria with higher number of universities and research institutions compared to any other country in sub-Saharan Africa produce large volume of research outputs that are of paramount value to scholarly. Institutional repositories are contemporary services academic research institutions render to its community members in the form of managing and disseminating of their intellectual works through a digital medium, open access IR have been found to play an important role in the preservation and dissemination of institutional research outputs which will in turn become a constituent part of a global research outputs especially in Nigeria with that higher number of universities and research institutions. This paper highlighted the conceptual framework of institutional repository, definitions, benefit, institutional repository software systems, open access institutional repository in Nigeria, resource sharing and some the challenges in Nigerian institutions. Keywords- Institutional Repository, Open Access, Resources Sharing, Issues, Challenges ——————————  —————————— 1 INTRODUCTION Institutional repositories are been established in academic libraries. University based institutional repositories manage, disseminate and preserve where appropriate, digital materials created by the institution and its community members. They also organize and access these materials, (Lynch 2003). The growth of open access institutional digital repositories has been very remarkable in developed countries as well as some developing countries like Brazil, India and South Africa (Christian, 2008). But not much had been heard in sub-Saharan African countries (Nigeria inclusive). Nigeria with an estimated population of 150 million has 129 universities, 75 polytechnics, 63 colleges of education and 100 research and allied institutions host the highest number of institutions compared to any country in Africa (Bola, 2013). Curiously, there are 19 active Institutional Digital Repositories in South Africa, 6 each in Egypt and Kenya and Nigeria has 5 (Directory of Open Access Repository, 2013). Academic institutions have been grappling with how to communicate to scholars the digital intellectual output they produce including journal articles, conference papers, reports, theses & dissertation, teaching materials, artwork, research notes, and research data. Clearly, technology has made it easy to create, store and access digital material (Mohammed, 2013). Bentley and Oladiran (2010) discussions concerning IRs as a possible alternative publishing model split IR adherents into different camps, between innovators and purists. One model frames deposit in a repository as an adjunct, and complementary to, the traditional publication process (Hunter, 2007). Lynch (2003) for example firmly believes “it underestimates the importance of institutional repositories to characterise them as instruments for restructuring the current economics of scholarly publishing rather than as vehicles to advance, support, and legitimise a much broader spectrum of new scholarly communications”. The other group sees repositories as the beginning of new forms of academic publishing. Hunter (2007) agreed that the e-Scholarship Repository had effectively become a publishing platform. From the above assertions, it is apparent that there is at least complete agreement on how an IDR can complement analogue and e-traditional forms of publication. All parties accept that the revolution in scholarly communications means that traditional forms such as journal are not meeting the yearnings of modern day scholars. Institutional digital repositories can support these new manifestations of scholarship that emphasize data as an integral part of the record and discourse of scholarship (Lynch 2003). 2 DEFINITIONS OF INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORY Lynch (2003) has defined a university institutional repository as a collection of services that a university proffers to its own members intended for the management, organization and diffusion of digital works produced by these members. Crow (2002a) and Ware (2004) characterized an institutional repository as open, interoperable, cumulative, perpetual, contributes to the process of scholarly communication in collecting, storing and disseminating the scholarly content. The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) position IJSER