From Conception to Reality: Building a Successful IR at Utah State University

• Main Author: Clement, Richard W.
• Format: text
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2013
• Subjects: Library and Information Science
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/irday_2013/ir2013/presentations/1; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=irday_2013
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Utah State University's conception for its institutional repository has been broad from the outset. Our vision has extended far beyond depositing copies of ETDs and collecting previously published peer-reviewed faculty articles, though these remain important components. We recognized and envisioned a broad continuum of scholarly content created on campus that would benefit from the greater access and visibility afforded by deposit in an IR. This continuum ranges from the University Press and scholarly journals to the reports of the Agricultural Extension Service and the technical reports of the Utah Water Laboratory to student research posters, and much more. We also recognized that we could only successfully collect that content by demonstrating to faculty and administrators that the IR promoted their best interests. This library-led initiative has campus-wide support and is recognized as a fundamental element in the university’s ability to achieve its mission. The IR has become the portal through which faculty, students, alumni—indeed the whole world—accesses the scholarly research output of Utah State University.