Online institution repository

This archived article was written by: Andrew Wesolek

Andrew Wesolek, scholarly communications and institutional repository librarian, is happy to report that the Digital Commons has surpassed 500,000 total full-text downloads.  Sounds great, but who is Wesolek?  And what is the Digital Commons?
The Digital Commons is the online institutional repository for Utah State University.  The goal is to collect, preserve, and provide access to all of the faculty and student publications produced at all of the USU campuses. To date, our repository contains over 20,000 faculty publications, student theses/dissertations, presentations, open access journals, and much more.
Wesolek joined USU Libraries in July 2011.  His lengthy title can be a bit much to digest, so for short, he is the Digital Commons Guy.  He spends most of his days recruiting content, meeting with faculty to discuss the benefits of including publications in the digital commons, advocating for your right to access research and retain copyright on your scholarly works, and overseeing a dedicated team of student employees.  In his free time he enjoys climbing, hiking and, of course, reading.
Including publications in the Digital Commons, it helps individual students and faculty members as well as USU as a whole.  Firstly, the Digital Commons is accessible around the world.  During the past year, for example, more than one third of Digital Commons visitors accessed it from outside of the United States.  Many of these people may not have access to USU scholarship that appears in subscription-based journals.  Secondly, studies suggest that providing open access to your works in open access repositories like Digital Commons increases their find ability and positively affects the total number of citations they receive. 
Ready to deposit your works?  For more information contact Andrew at [email protected]