A key tool to making institutional repositories work is the successful use of repository metrics. These metrics are generated through repository platforms and third party sources such as Google Analytics and Altmetrics, and are generated in-house by repository managers. The successful repository manager turns metrics into quality assessment tools, matching the metric source to the appropriate audience and purpose. Imaginative uses of metrics market the repository and stoke faculty participation. Providing meaningful metrics to repository stakeholders proves the value of institutional repositories to contributors and funding stakeholders. Purposeful metrics play a key role in establishing institutional repositories as an integral technology in the research enterprise of the institution.