Article 4: Promoting and Archiving Student Work through an Institutional Repository: Trinity University, LASR, and the Digital Commons

Nolan, C. W., & Costanza, J. (2006). Promoting and archiving student work through an institutional repository: Trinity University, LASR, and the Digital Commons. Serials Review, 32(2), 92-98. doi:10.1016/j.serrev.2006.03.009

Institutional repositories (IR) have typically focused on faculty scholarship. Trinity University, along with Carleton, Dickinson, and Middlebury Colleges, began an IR featuring student work in order to promote student scholarship, and help students and faculty better understand copyright issues and alternative publishing. ProQuest hosts the server, manages the accompanying software, and makes the libraries' content shared and searchable by each institution; each library independently manages it's own Digital Commons site. Traditionally, IRs have focused on faculty publications; the new idea of the student IR required education of faculty, students, and staff, though students were more receptive to the IR, noting the discoverability of their work to future employers and graduate schools. The students submit their senior papers/projects via web form to the Liberal Arts Scholarly Repository (LASR). Each institution determines collection guidelines. Some considerations for those institutions interested in beginning something similar include staffing and financial expenses, marketing the concept to the institution, collaborative work with other institutions, determining scope (which types of work are included?), pre-publication and copyright concerns in regards to future publishing, ownership and copyright, formats accepted, length of preservation commitment, metadata, migration as platforms/formats change, and departmental concerns from around campus. By developing the IR as a consortium, LASR was able to receive vendor discounts, sharing of student work throughout all participating institutions, and has the potential for sharing procedures, collection policies, and metadata creation. Authors utilizing the IR receive statistics detailing the use of their work.