“Repository” does not capture the dynamic potential of an institutional repository. Much more than a publishing mechanism for campus scholarship and an archive of college history, it is an opportunity to partner with nearly every entity across campus in order to advance the institution’s mission and goals. The institutional repository calls attention to the library’s unique ability to facilitate campus-wide collaboration and fosters community by uniting disparate groups around a common purpose. More specifically, the institutional repository can play an important role in recruiting new students, enhancing current students’ desire to produce high quality work, strengthening institutional engagement among alumni, enriching relationships with the surrounding community, and more. But to come to fruition, these possibilities require strong, collaborative, on-going partnerships between librarians and the rest of campus – partnerships developed by thoughtful, imaginative outreach efforts tailored to the institutional culture. This presentation will consider how the institutional repository can help support the institution’s mission and vision, brainstorm ideas for working with a wide variety of academic and co-curricular departments and offices, explore how to organize and structure outreach efforts in order to foster teamwork and generate buy-in, and discuss the value of highlighting successful ventures as a means to create even more collaborations in the future. Speaker: Connie Ghinazzi, Research & Outreach Librarian, Augustana College

1. Connieghinazzi@augustana.edu 5/2017
Communication is Key: Positioning the Repository as a
Cornerstone of Campus Collaboration
Our Mission Statement: Augustana Digital Commons showcases outstanding scholarly and creative
works of the students, faculty, and staff of Augustana College. By providing free and open access to
these unique materials, Augustana Digital Commons connects the intellectual output of the college
with scholarship worldwide, thus contributing to the formation of new knowledge. In addition,
Augustana Digital Commons preserves the college's history and facilitates campus communication.
Part I: Identify
Identify key collaborators and unique collections across campus in order to build an IR that reflects
the institution’s mission and culture.
Some of our early adopters have helped us recruit others to publish their work in our IR.
Your institution: Identify
 What part(s) of your institutional mission and culture can you tap into to help build your IR?
 Who tend to be “early adopters” on your campus?
 Who is involved in interesting projects, and how can you capture their attention?
 How can you prioritize among the many worthwhile projects and ideas?
Part II: Act Activate librarians and key collaborators as ambassadors of the IR in order to coordinate
and expand outreach efforts.
Some examples of our outreach efforts at Augustana: class upload sessions, collaborating with key
non-academic departments, and registration for Celebration of Learning through our IR.

2. Connieghinazzi@augustana.edu 5/2017
Your Institution: Act
 What special “outlets” do you have where you can target a specific group?
 Who can help you convey the message and create energy around the IR?
 What are some creative or unusual ways to communicate the IR that will catch people’s
attention?
Part III: Celebrate and Reflect
Celebrate evidence of success in order to foster campus pride in – and ownership of – the IR.
Examples of building on success in order to generate more involvement in Augustana Digital
Commons: publicizing print and video testimonials from students and faculty highlighting the
benefits of publication.
Your institution: Celebrate and Reflect
 What are aspects of your IR that are noteworthy and should be publicized?
 How can you best communicate your IR successes? To faculty and staff? To students? To
administrators?
 Who are your biggest “champions” and how can they help communicate your success?
Part IV: Moving Forward
At the end of each year, evaluate priorities, team/workflow balance, momentum, and areas
underrepresented in your IR.
 Based on our discussion today, list three points you want to address for your IR.