We're All In This Together: Supporting the Dissemination of University Research Through Library Services

One of the primary functions of universities is the discovery and dissemination of new knowledge. Yet, most institutions only focus on supporting faculty in the initial discovery process, requiring researchers to fend for themselves when sharing their work. Institutional repositories (IRs) have a unique opportunity to expand traditional library services by supporting the dissemination of university research. Thinking beyond archiving graduate theses and faculty publications, librarians are developing new IR services which can assist faculty in a variety of ways. Managing researcher pages, consulting on copyright transfer agreements, exchanging publication information with other university stakeholders, even launching library-based publishing services are all ways repositories have begun reaching out to faculty. The effect of these new services is beginning to transform the scholarly communications cycle and the library's role in those processes. Boise State University began developing its institutional repository (IR), ScholarWorks, in the fall of 2008. Unlike other libraries, we didn't begin our efforts with research studies and long term roadmaps. Instead we were very fortunate to have high level support from our Provost who understood the need for and value of having a system which could support faculty scholarship. This support enabled us to begin developing a set of services designed to capture and showcase scholarship produced at Boise State. Also during this period, our Provost shared with the Vice President of Research, the Dean of the Graduate College, and the Dean of the University Library, a presentation given by David Shulenburger, VicePresident for Academic Affairs for the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges. In his remarks to the Association of Research Libraries, Shulenburger discussed a survey he had conducted of Provosts, asking if universities had strategies for disseminating the scholarship they produced. Only a handful provided any kind of affirmative response, indicating that it was not a priority for most universities. In this presentation, along with the ideas set forth in the The University’s Role in the Dissemination of Research and Scholarship which he helped author, Shulenburger exhorted universities to take responsibility for the dissemination of its research and advocated for the development of distribution strategies (Shulenburger, 2007; Association of American Universities, Association of Research Libraries, The Coalition for Networked Information, and the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, 2009). Boise State embraced these concepts as we began to develop the ScholarWorks services. Traditionally the dissemination of scholarship is left up to the individual professor and in most institutions the only acceptable method of distribution is through traditionally published peer-reviewed journals. This system of dissemination is virtually immutable since it is so strongly connected to the tenure review process. Because this is generally the standard for universities across America, there has been little impetus for faculty, or universities administrators for that matter, to investigate or change how the scholarship produced at their institutions is disseminated. The consequence is that access to new research and scholarship is limited to those who can afford to pay for these journals. Universities have always had a research mission, but they have not necessarily taken responsibility for disseminating this work. In modern academia however, faculty have almost unlimited ways of describing and sharing the work they have created. This new environment is challenging the standard practices for publishing scholarship and as a result universities have an opportunity to change how their research is disseminated. The University's Role in the Dissemination of Research and Scholarship A Call to Action describes several strategies universities could use to support the dissemination of its research: