Assessing the Global Divide: Repository access from the global north and south, before and after COVID

The Repository Analytics and Metrics Portal (RAMP) is a web service that aggregates Google search engine performance metrics for a global set institutional repositories. A previously reported analysis of the open RAMP dataset, conducted in 2019, demonstrated a disparity in IR access between the global north and south and suggested that a key driver of this disparity is the different types of devices used to search for and access IR content. Specifically, users from the global south are more likely than their global north counterparts to interact with IR content using smaller, handheld mobile devices. This finding has implications for the design of accessible user interfaces across IR platforms. We present updated findings using the complete RAMP dataset of 2019-2021 search engine performance data for a larger set of IR. Methods for cleaning and augmenting RAMP data will be presented, and trends demonstrating the continued disparity of IR access between the global north and south throughout the COVID-19 pandemic will be highlighted. We will provide recommendations for improving the accessibility of IR content for mobile devices, with a closing discussion of other factors that may inhibit access to IR content by users within the global south.