Digital Commons

Supporting and Showcasing Undergraduate Research through the Institutional Repository

A growing number of liberal arts college libraries are using their own institutional repositories to capture student works and foster student research. This webinar addresses the topics of:

• Collecting and managing student works: undergraduate major papers, capstone and research projects
• Campus based publishing: creating and publishing peer-reviewed student-run scholarly journals
• Capturing and showcasing student events, student research conferences and workshops

Digitally Archiving your Law Reviews: from Planning to Population

Last year, the William & Mary law library uploaded 5,000 documents to their institutional repository in little over 3 months. The documents include the complete archives of five law reviews, spanning more than 50 years of scholarly publications. Over the last year, these collections have garnered more than 400,000 downloads from a global audience.

Lauren Seney and Linda Tesar, who led the effort to archive W&M’s law reviews, share their experiences in this webinar. Topics include: essential components, best practices, and strategies for archiving law reviews online.

Institutional Repositories and Scholarly Publishing Platforms for Liberal Arts Colleges

A growing number of liberal arts college libraries, including the Claremont Colleges, Wesleyan University, and Colby College, are managing their own institutional repositories (IRs) to preserve and showcase the intellectual output of their institutions.

Topics include:

• Collecting and managing student works: Graduate work, undergraduate major papers and research projects
• Showcasing faculty scholarship: Publications, presentations, research and reports
• Campus based publishing: Peer-reviewed scholarly journals by faculty and students
• Managing the content of events, conferences, workshops, and lecture series

Publishing Journals in Digital Commons: Set-up, Launch, and Beyond

Digital Commons software makes electronic journal publishing efficient, attractive, and easy. In this webinar, Wendy Robertson, Digital Resources Librarian at University of Iowa, discusses specific steps and provides valuable advice for publishing a journal in Digital Commons. Topics include:

• General journal set-up: what information to include
• Communicating with journal editors
• Getting the word out to relevant organizations

In addition, Ann Taylor, Associate Scholarly Communications Advisor at bepress, provides a brief introduction and overview of journal publishing in Digital Commons.

A Collaboration Between Digital and Reference: Solutions for Copyright Clearance and Outreach

Two of the biggest challenges institutional repositories face are outreach and copyright clearance. In this webinar, Heather Leary, previously Scholarly Communications and IR Librarian at Utah State University, explores the use of subject librarians for copyright clearance and outreach and discusses the workflow used at Utah State University's Digital Commons repository. The webinar addresses benefits for the repository and subject librarians, the value and sustainability of such a program, and how further relationships can be built between departments.

During her tenure managing the repository at Utah State University, Heather Leary helped launch over 70 SelectedWorks pages, organized an IR Day at USU, and implemented a Copyright Roadshow to inform faculty about copyright issues and repository services through DigitalCommons@USU. Her work with liaison librarians has resulted in the addition of such collections as the Aspen Research Bibliography and the Canyonlands Research Center to the repository.

Managing ETDs with Digital Commons: A Case Study at UMass Amherst

Electronic theses and dissertations are often a natural starting point and a great fit for institutional repositories. In this joint presentation, Meghan Banach, Metadata Catalog Librarian at University of Massachusetts - Amherst, addresses the benefits and challenges of managing ETDs through the repository, and best practices the library has developed over time. Her discussion includes a consideration of workflows, access controls, and metadata collection, as well as partnerships between the Graduate School and the library. Courtney Smith, director of Outreach and Scholarly Communications at bepress, discusses how Digital Commons can meet the needs of graduate programs across campus.

Staffing the Repository: How to Build Your Team and Use It Effectively

Brad Matthies, Access Services Librarian and Project Manager for Digital Commons at Butler University, discusses the development of DigitalCommons@Butler, offering valuable suggestions for managing a repository with limited staff and resources.
Among the topics covered in the webinar:

• Using the staff you have available to best advantage
• Developing successful, scalable workflows
• Maintaining momentum over time

Over the last two and a half years, and with no more than half an FTE dedicated at any one time, Brad and his team have brought Digital Commons@Butler from several hundred objects to over 2,000 objects. Just in the past year, it has grown by more than 700 objects. They have collected in both undergraduate and graduate ETDs, archived two journals, are publishing a third, have populated over 30 different series, and have built a gallery of SelectedWorks pages on behalf of faculty.

Kick-Starting IR Success at Any Stage

What does it take to create the foundation for repository success? Drawing from the knowledge and best practices across the Digital Commons community, Courtney Smith, bepress' Director of Outreach and Scholarly Communications, explores how libraries are developing strong repository teams and expansive repository collections, and are using these to create strategic and sustainable connections on campus.

Institutional Repositories for Medical Schools

Tim Tamminga, Vice President of Global Sales at bepress, discusses how the growing number of medical school libraries, including Thomas Jefferson University, University of Massachusetts, and Washington University, are managing their own institutional repositories (IR) to preserve and showcase the intellectual output of their institutions. Topics include:

• Collecting and managing student works: Theses and dissertations, major papers, and research projects
• Showcasing faculty scholarship: Publications, presentations, and technical reports
• Campus based publishing: Peer-reviewed scholarly journals, departmental magazines, etc.
• Publicizing events, conferences, workshops, and lecture series
• Supporting the medical school's institutes and centers (e.g., CTSA materials)

Managing Events Through Digital Commons: The LibTech Conference at Macalester

In 2010, Macalester Library moved the Library Technology Conference from its original website into the repository. The conference committee did this in order to improve the proposal review and publication process. In doing so, they were also able to capture the full lifecycle of the conference scholarship – from call for proposals through to final publication and impact assessment.

Learn from Ron Joslin, Systems Librarian at Macalester, about the benefits and challenges of managing LibTech through the repository.

Hear from Courtney Smith, Outreach and Scholarly Communications at bepress, how conference scholarship can be a distinct hook for faculty and an easy way for the library to support the process of scholarship creation on campus.