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Vol. 2, No. 2 Spring 2005
Library Creates Digital Repositories of Faculty Scholarship
Charles Lockwood, Digital Librarian
Libraries have traditionally purchased and organized print and electronic resources from publishers and
other vendors. Increasingly, however, academic libraries are taking on an additional role as creators of
digital "institutional repositories" of their faculty's scholarly output. These repositories can
include a wide variety of documents, ranging from articles already appearing in licensed databases to
the unpublished fruits of faculty course instruction ("learning objects"), preprints, presentations,
and conference papers ("gray literature"). While the technical standards for creating these repositories
have become fairly well established, there are still a number of challenging issues related to rights
management that libraries must confront. Copyright law and the institution's information policies are
ever-present considerations.
The Loyola Notre Dame Library is now providing some electronic collections that begin to resemble the
"institutional repository" or "digital library" model. In ENCompass, the digital library platform, we
have put digitized versions of most of Loyola College's Pastoral Counseling theses and dissertations
online. The library has also been involved in small electronic journal projects with the Loyola Modern
Languages and Literatures Department. (see The Bridge Vol. 1, No. 2 Spring 2004).
In another recent development, the Pastoral Counseling Department and the Library's Digital Access Team
have begun to collaborate on a library-side prototype that is organizing the department faculty's book and
article citations (with full-text links to the articles). This has helped us establish a best-practice
model for describing, organizing, and accessing this type of database. Another idea being considered is
faculty "self- archiving" as a means of building the digital repository. We also anticipate direct
submission of theses and dissertations in digital form from participating academic departments; up
till now much of our work has been in retroactively digitizing paper copies of these documents.
This is an ideal time for libraries to facilitate the sharing of all forms of faculty scholarship with
colleagues and students. Notre Dame and Loyola faculty are invited to participate in future "digital
repository building" projects. Please contact John McGinty, Director, or Charles Lockwood, Digital
Librarian to discuss how we can work together.
Related Resources (available to the library community):
ORCA Digital Library of Loyola Notre Dame Library
MIT's super archive. Information Management Journal. March-April
2003.Vol.37 (2): p.18
Cervone, H Frank. The Repository Adventure. Library Journal.
Jun 1, 2004.Vol.129 (10):
p. 44.
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