01/19/16 js/kb
HAYS, Kan. -- Two academic journals produced at Fort Hays State University and a book written by an FHSU professor became publicly available today as the first works available in the FHSU Scholars Repository, sponsored by Forsyth Library.

During the spring 2016 semester, Forsyth Library will mount additional pilot projects including scholarly journals, image collections, student research and select faculty scholarship.

The repository is on the Digital Commons platform hosted by bepress (formerly called Berkeley Electronic Press).

The Journal of International and Interdisciplinary Business Research, edited by Dr. Justin Evans, assistant professor of management, and the archive of the Journal of Business and Leadership (2005-2012) are both featured as inaugural collections, as is the book "An Intelligent Troglodyte's Guide to Plato's Republic," by Dr. Douglas Drabkin, associate professor of philosophy. The book is offered as an open educational resource.

As early as 2011, proposals were created to establish an institutional repository (IR) at FHSU. When Library Dean Deborah Ludwig joined the faculty and staff in July 2014, she made the IR a priority. In November of 2014 Forsyth Library invited representatives from bepress to demonstrate its Digital Commons hosted platform to FHSU faculty and staff.

"That demonstration was met with great enthusiasm and interest," said Ludwig, "so in August 2015, with funding support from President Mirta M. Martin, Provost Graham Glynn, and Vice President for Technology Joy Hatch, we acquired Digital Commons and began designing and developing FHSU Scholars Repository."

The team that produced the FHSU Scholars Repository included Ludwig; Jennifer Sauer, the library's coordinator of scholar services and electronic resources; Yumi Ohira, digital curation librarian; Dan Shea, academic affairs marketing specialist; Lyndsey Dugan, graphic design program coordinator; Mary Ridgway, university creative director; and Earl Ruder, webmaster.

Other pilot projects identified to promote in the first year are an image collection from University Relations and Marketing, open educational resources and student research as well as peer-reviewed work from FHSU faculty scholars.

A major goal of the IR is to make research and scholarly and creative work produced at FHSU more visible and accessible. Institutional repositories focus primarily on open access content -- content that is available online and free of charge and which is generally free of copyright and licensing restrictions.

"It is work that the creators are able to freely share with anyone they choose, and in the case of an IR, the world, thanks to the Internet," said Sauer.

The Digital Commons platform allows dissemination of work in many different formats, including theses, open educational resources, journals, video, posters, image galleries and more. The platform also provides the capability to plan and host FHSU sponsored conferences and publish the associated papers, posters, schedules and more.

Future collections in the repository will include diverse scholarship from across the FHSU community of faculty, students and staff as well as select university archive resources and historical materials. The repository will be fully available in fall 2016.

Sauer said Forsyth Library wants to work with FHSU community members who have an interest in depositing highly visible and publicly accessible research and creative work. As part of the acquisition of Digital Commons, the bepress product Selected Works was included, which allows faculty members to create their own pages to highlight their publications, creative works and performances.

"This will create an online scholarly identity where the faculty can share their scholarship and measure its impact," said Sauer. "It will provide a network for researchers where they can connect and collaborate with other scholars."

FHSU Scholars Repository is available at scholars.fhsu.edu.

Forsyth Library's website is www.fhsu.edu/library.

For more information, contact Sauer (785-628-5262) or Ludwig (785-628-4431) at the library, or email jsauer@fhsu.edu or dmludwig@fhsu.edu.