Category Archives: Digital Initiatives

University Libraries conducting a new survey on “open access”

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open access logoAlthough the annual Open Access Week is several months behind us, the University Libraries is interested in keeping the conversation on open access going.

Just over two years ago the University Libraries conducted a survey to gauge UT’s institutional perception of and experience with the open access (OA) publishing environment.  If you are a faculty member or researcher, GA or TA, we would like to invite you to participate in our NEW follow-up survey.

The IRB-approved survey (which takes about 10 minutes to complete) asks first some basic questions about your understanding, views and experiences with open access research and publishing.  The second part of the survey asks your opinions on the best use of an institutional repository.  The “institutional repository” (or IR) has become the preferred scholarly publishing and digital curation tool for researchers at universities worldwide.   It serves both as a storehouse and a showcase of the intellectual and creative output of an institution:  from faculty research articles and data sets, to student theses, dissertations and projects, to media and grey literature, conference presentation files, and more.  The IR can even serve as a publishing platform.  The University Libraries will soon be launching a brand new IR and so we would like to have as much feedback as possible on the best way to maximize its value and impact.  If you would like, you can read more about repositories here.

So if you are a faculty member, GA or TA, please consider taking the survey!  Upon completion of the survey you may opt in for a random prize drawing.  Thanks.

UPDATE [3/2/14]:  Survey is now closed.  Thanks to all who participated!

Local History through the Public Eye

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Interested in local history? Already using Instagram? “Local History through the Public Eye” on the Toledo’s Attic site (www.toledosattic.org) is an experiment in crowd-curation of local history through the eyes of Instagram enthusiasts with respect for the region’s history. Images of historical buildings and sites of events in Toledo and Northwest Ohio history are invited. This includes buildings, historical markers, parks, and social and business establishments with historical significance. We ask that participants add the #toledosattic hash tag along with some identification, and if possible geographical location to their photos and it hould appear in this gallery. A small gallery has already formed on http://toledosattic.org/index.php/socialmedia/instageogal.

Look for @toledoattic on Instagram. Thank you!

UT Students’ Projects Now in Digital Resource Commons

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UT Libraries recently contributed copies of over 400 graduate students’ projects to OhioLINK’s Digital Resource Commons (DRC). Users are able to browse and search the collection a variety of different ways and view the full text of all documents free of charge.

The Digital Resource Commons was created to provide a statewide platform for Ohio’s public universities and private colleges to save and share the instructional, research, historic, and creative materials they produce.

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Currently all of the UT projects in the DRC were written by graduate students on the Health Science Campus and its predecessors, the Medical University of Ohio and Medical College of Ohio.  Included are:

  • Scholarly projects by master’s students in biomedical sciences, nursing, occupational health, and physician assistant studies;
  • Scholarly and capstone projects by master’s and doctoral students in occupational therapy;
  • Scholarly projects by master’s and doctoral students in physical therapy; and
  • Evidence-based practice projects by doctoral students in nursing.

So far they are the only programs which have submitted students’ projects in digital format to UT Libraries for cataloging.  Digital copies of projects from other graduate programs are more than welcome.  Please contact Sheryl Stevens in the UT Libraries Cataloging Department for more information.

Records for all these projects are still in the Libraries’ online catalog.  All links have been updated to connect to the new DRC locations.