New service shares PSU research and rare library holdings with the world

  Thursday, December 3, 2015 2:00 AM
  News

Pittsburg, KS

New service shares PSU research and rare library holdings with the world

Every semester, faculty and students at Pittsburg State University conduct an impressive amount of research that is then followed by papers, reports, theses and monographs. Until recently, finding and reading about that research was a task that required both skill and long hours in the library.

Now, thanks to a new service called Digital Commons, the wide range of student and faculty scholarship produced on the PSU campus each year is available for all of the world to see, in digital form, from any computer connected to the Internet.

Deborah White, the digital resources and initiatives manager at PSU’s Leonard H. Axe Library, said Digital Commons is a repository for all kinds of resources, ranging from printed papers and theses to audio and visual files.

“Through Digital Commons,” White said, “Pittsburg State is able to preserve its intellectual output digitally and share it with the wider world.”

Randy Roberts, dean of library services, said one big advantage to using a service like Digital Commons is that it is easily searchable from anywhere in the world. When someone downloads information from a PSU file, the university and the author of the research receive an email so they can track the influence the research has had.

Roberts said acquiring the Digital Commons service was made possible with assistance from the Office of Graduate and Continuing Studies and the Academic Affairs Division of the university.

White said that the PSU material available on Digital Commons is growing daily as new research is added and as student workers scan theses, KANZA yearbooks and other resources from the library’s considerable holdings into digital files. Digital Commons will also provide access to many of the rare and unique materials the library holds in its Special Collections area.

“A library’s role is to share information in the widest and least restrictive way possible,” Roberts said. “A service like Digital Commons is a modern tool that allows us to fulfill our mission in ways that were never before possible.”

To access Digital Commons, go to http://axe.pittstate.edu/. For more about Digital Commons, visit their website at http://digitalcommons.bepress.com/.


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