Byrne, AnnDavey, EmberlyO'Dowd, Irene2024-12-162024-12-162024-11https://iasc.hiberniacollege.com/handle/20.500.13012/212Developing faculty and staff engagement with a new open-access institutional repository (IR) is a challenge often underestimated during IR implementation projects. The idea that “if you build it, they will come” does not reflect the reality of establishing a successful IR in a third-level institution (Ferreira et al., 2008). Factors that hinder the adoption of open-access IRs are many and varied, and a multi-pronged approach is required both to gain an understanding of these factors and develop a strategy to address them (Narayan and Luca, 2017; Tmava, 2022). For those involved in IR implementation projects, having surmounted the considerable hurdles of securing approval and funding for an IR and then developing the platform, the need for the development of such a strategy often comes as quite a surprise. However, it is arguably the most important part of ensuring a successful IR implementation. This poster outlines the genesis and continuing evolution of our own IR engagement strategy and our learnings from the process. The journey so far has prompted a process of continuous reflection upon our new role as IR administrators, informed by the reflective model of Experience, Reflection, Action (Jasper, 2013) and guided by Holliday’s (2017) thinking on the power of metaphor in theory and practice. We hope that sharing this journey will benefit those at a similar or earlier stage of open-access IR implementation. This poster was presented at the 3rd annual HECA Research Conference held at Griffith College, Dublin on the 19th of November.Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Insitutional repositoryuser engagementself-archivingopen-accessPoster