Institutional Repositories

Finding Open Access Articles – Tools & Tips

“How Many Clicks Does it Take?”   Update: I’ve updated this article on 9/12/2018 to include additional resources brought to my attention. I have also added that this post is licensed under CC-BY so please feel free to share, reuse & build this information (ideally with attribution). One of the pillars of libraries is facilitating access to the large corpus of existing knowledge. Typically this requires accessing gated information through a publisher or other service provider. Each institution can manage access to subscriptions in a way that works best for their communities – usually either by IP authentication or login credentials. This can be cumbersome for affiliates when not working onsite as there are often additional barriers to subscription access. Often this can require using Remote Desktop or a VPN to connect to a network before access is recognized. For the institution where I work this involves 10 – 15…

Institutional Repositories

Starting an IR from scratch: What’s it like? I had to ask.

Within the last year, our institutional repository (IR) work has increased greatly at the University of North Alabama. Over that time, we started an institutional repository with BePress hosting, and hired our first Scholarly Communications Librarian. Our new librarian splits her time and responsibilities with instruction expectations. However, she is the primary contact and sole manager of the IR. I often wondered to myself what her experience was like in her first year. Not only was she starting in a new position at a new university, but she was also establishing an IR from nothing. I decided to sit with our new Scholarly Communications & Instruction Librarian, Jennifer (Jen) Pate, and conduct a mini-interview concerning her experiences. Below is a recap of the questions I asked, her answers, and her thoughts for moving forward. I started by asking Jen, “Prior to starting your position at UNA, what was the extent…