Institutional Repositories

and the HumanitiesA New Collaborative Model

for Scholarly Publishing

Virtual Symposium on Information & Technology in the Arts & Humanities

PRESENTATION – LAURA RUSCHMANInstitutional repositories and the humanities: A new collaborative model for scholarly publishing

SPONSORED BY ASIS&T SIG-AH & SIG-VIS

HOSTED BY SJSU ASIS&T

Institutional Repositories

and the HumanitiesA New Collaborative Model

for Scholarly Publishing

The AuthorO Laura Ruschman

O Wayne State University (Detroit, MI)O Masters in Library and Information Science

O Specialization: Digital Content ManagementO May 2015

O Bachelor of ArtsMiami University , ‘09

(Oxford, OH)

O Certificate in PublishingNew York University, ‘09

(New York, NY)

How scholarly publishing works now

Book LifecycleRobert Darnton, “What Is the History of Books?” (1982)

“Within this model, libraries, focusing primarily on the products of print culture, are situated as secondary distributors. Libraries also have had important roles in reception…but [that] role is usually a passive one”

-Michael Paulus ”Reconceptualizing Academic Libraries and Archives in the Digital Age”(2011)

DCC Curation Lifecycle Model

www.dcc.ac.uk/resources/curation-lifecycle-model

How does this impact libraries and scholarly publishing?

O Using this model, libraries and archival institutions have a responsibility to participate in digital curation.

O There is now a need for libraries to begin partnering with the creators of scholarly content so that the final result will be prepped for long-term digital curation.

O “Many academic librarians agree that library services need to evolve to support the creation of such scholarly works.” -Michael Paulus

What are institutional repositories?

General definition is grounded in one of the traditional (some might say outdated) functions of an academic library:

A space that serves as a “repository”, or storehouse,

of books, information, and scholarly works.

I think this definition overly simplifies the role of institutional repositories in the academic environment

(and it neglects their ability to directly impact scholarly publishing and creation)

What are institutional repositories?

“A set of services that a university offers to the community for the management and dissemination of digital materials created by the institution and its community.”-Clifford Lynch (2003)

“Web-based database (repository) of scholarly material which is institutionally defined.”-Mark Ware (2004)

“[A program that encourages] the campus community…to deposit/contribute material individuals create as part of their teaching/learning/scholarly activities.”-Camile A. Alire, G. Edward Evans (2010)

What are they? Scholarly in nature Digital, or web-based Institutionally-defined Open and interoperable Cumulative and perpetual

How do they work? Dspace or Fedora

(Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository

Architecture) Ability to work with, and

manipulate, metadata schemas

Issues with Open Access“…the evidence shows that despite a considerable investment on the part of academic libraries in these repositories, the scholars and researchers whose works it is intended to support have not shown that same commitment to Open Access.”-Rowena Cullen and Brenda Chawner

O In particular, humanities scholars have a “low awareness” of repositories and their value, due to an adherence to traditional publishing outlets

Not to mention the connection between publishing in traditional journals and tenure

O Convincing scholars of the advantage of institutional repositories and open access publishing will require a culture shift among academia

What am I talking about?

Let’s look at a real institutional repository.

Digital Commons@Wayne State University

http://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/

Here you can browse, search, and even submit your own research.

How easy is it to submit?

This is how the submission

process works

This is what’s required of authors

Here’s what you’re agreeing to

Title List of authors Abstract Document type Disciplines Recommended citation Download option

So, how can institutional repositories

change scholarly publishing?

Built-in metadata requirements

O Metadata: Descriptive and technical information affixed to a digital object that identifies and indexes that object

O Institutional repositories can make entering metadata a required part of submissionO Forces authors to think critically about their workO Brings authors into the publishing, digital curation process

O Software capabilities can turn simple keywords hyperlinks O Subject searchesO XML-ready

O Building metadata into digital files helps ensure long-term preservation and curation

The library and university are now publishers

O How did publishing work before? (Remember the first slide?)O Traditional academic publishers + a traditional publishing cycleO Paper costs + space requirements

O Instead, institutional repository software is giving authors and editors the tools and platform they need to submit, edit, and publish scholarly workO Don’t worry – traditional editorial practices aren’t going away!O Using institutional repositories, you can:

O Create online-only journalsO Identify editors and editorial boardsO Include peer reviews

O Plus, it’s not just text and graphics! O Powerpoint presentations, data sets, and other content in non-

traditional formats best consumed via a digital interface

Promoting and sharing emerging research

O Science scholars utilize pre-prints O Draft of a scientific paper that has not yet been

officially publishedO Shares important research with the scientific

community(FYI: Where do you often find pre-

prints? In institutional repositories!)

O One can imagine an academic publishing environment in which institutional repositories are at the center of early discussions about emerging research

So, why is this important for the humanities?

O The humanities are very important(But they can appear a little out of touch)

O As others have pointed, the humanities are notorious for underutilizing digital publishing

Humanities scholars and students could

stand to gain the most from

institutional repositories +

digital publishing

Scholarly work is different in a digital environment

O The digital world has already radically changed our conception of content + information in journalism and book publishing (Who checks NYTimes.com? Who has an e-reader?)

O Why not scholarly publishing? Let’s push the boundaries of what we know and ask:O What is a “journal”?O What is an “article”?O How could these entities evolve in tandem with

the publication tools that seek to curate and disseminate them?

Let’s talk about scholarly publishing and the humanities

O But when we do, we need to put institutional repositories at the center of that conversation.

O Institutional repositories help scholars:O CreateO DisseminateO ShareO DiscussO CurateO Preserve

O Let’s talk about ways to changeO Let’s talk about ways to advance

scholarshipO Let’s talk about ways to reach a new

generation of readers and scholarsO Let’s talk about ways to put scholarly

publishing within reachO Let’s talk about ways to revolutionize

the way humanities scholars conceive of, and conduct, research

Let’s talk about institutional repositories

and digital publishing

Questions

Virtual Symposium on Information & Technology in the Arts & Humanities

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