Object Size
Object size is another possible continuum. Of course, repositories will contain
objects of many different sizes – this continuum is based on the most common object
size. Many e-research projects now routinely work with very large (i.e., multigigabyte)
objects. These may either be single files, containers of files, or complex
VALA2008 Conference 4
databases. On the other hand, some types of repositories (typically publicationfocussed
institutional repositories) are designed to work with smaller (megabytesized)
objects. The size continuum is actually quite critical – a number of designers
of repository software have made implementation decisions on the basis of object
size or type, and repository managers are now having to revisit these decisions to
support larger/different objects.