This document discusses the benefits of an institutional repository (IR) for the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. It outlines several potential benefits, including increased dissemination, preservation of materials, technical support, and positive PR. It proposes that the IR's initial collections focus on student scholarship, including theses, images, recordings, and other works. Implementing an IR would help showcase student learning and meet accreditation standards. The document describes the school's plans to contribute initial materials to the SUNY-hosted IR and ongoing efforts to refine the submission process.

1. Mark A. Smith
Information Systems Librarian
Scholes Library, NYS College of Ceramics
at Alfred Universityß

2. John Schumacher
Institutional Repositories = Good Idea?

3. Here is our thinking:
• Dissemination Conduit - Can Show with the Big Boys
• Opportunity to Preserve & Organize Our Prized Materials
• Technical Perks of Hosted System (maintenance, batching, storage & Nathan)
• Community/Citizenship – strength in numbers, doing our part
• Shared Policies - Sometimes Structure Be a Good Thing
• PR, PR and PR – NYSCC attached to SUNY Brand

4. • Historical Images • Recorded Performances
• Archival/Primary Source Docs • Notable Lectures
• Images, Multimedia (sound/video) • Music Manuscripts
• Computer Applications • Visual Art Resources
• Administrative Documents • Original Writing
• Faculty Publications • Campus & Community Publ.
• Whitepapers • Theses
• Pre-Pubs • Technical Reports
• Original Music • Just About Anything …..

5. • “seed” the greater “collection”
• offer something valuable beyond our campus
• offer something that is unique in some way
• Oh yes… “We’re So Vain” - and we wanna look good

6. What we do is … produce world class artists and scientists.
And so it follows… What We Should Offer Is …

7. Our Students and Their Work:
Student Scholarship#
Why Student Scholarship? … Beyond An Opportunity to Gloat …
A perfect fit for the library:
• History: describing/delivering this content in “Analog” formats
• Access: immediate, unfettered access to all content
• In some cases we even helped produce it (Theses)
• Strong connections to the authors/artists/advisors/source content

8. • Content of immediate value/interest
• Simultaneously addresses multiple missions/strategic plans/goals
• Leverage legacy efforts in digitization
• And something for the Administrator Types … A Bonus ….
Think Middle States: Standard 14: Assessment of Student Learning!!
• Concrete evidence of student learning
• Can be an assessment/outcomes measure, evaluated & reported to accrediting bodies
• Potential tie-in with your Information Literacy initiatives

9. Community: New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University
Two Sub-communities: Kauzo Inamori School of Engineering
School of Art and Design
One Collection in Each Community:
Master of Science Theses (2004)
Images of MFA Thesis Work (selections from 2001-05)
Representing work in: Ceramic Engineering, Glass Science, Biomedical Materials
Science, Materials Science, Ceramic Art, Sculpture/Dimensional Studies (Glass &
Sculpture) and Electronic Integrated Arts

10. SUNY Repository Process/Guidelines:
• Describe Community and Sub-community Structure
• Determine roles/permissions for staff
• Determine Dublin Core metadata schema for each collection
• Prepare data (spreadsheet) and content
• Submit work – batch or manual
• Review

11. Small school, Small staff, Small resources … 4 of us in our “spare time”
Pat LaCourse - Eng & Science Libr.
Carla Johnson – Metadata Goddess
Mandy Economos - Vis. Res. Curator
Mark Smith - Info. Systems
• define and describe NYSCC communities
• “crosswalk” legacy metadata to the Dublin Core Standard
• select contributions, representative work
• collect permissions
• extract, edit and add data to spreadsheets

12. • develop and refine scanning procedures and workflow
• scan (and rescan) – review and resize before submission
• coordinate internally & with OLIS
• package metadata & content for submission processes
• setup remote access to content updates (or mail)
• review & customize web data display & editing templates
• eventually - manual submission

13. • Our Front Door – Search or Browse
• Community Page: Art - Engineering
• Title Display: Art - Engineering
• Short Record: Art – Engineering
• Full Record: Art – Engineering
• Content: Image – PDF
• Metadata Spreadsheet Sample

14. • Head start – built into pre-digital, accession process
• Art: archival scanning, years of description slide images
• Eng: grad course, thesis check, guided prep. (descr., permissions, etc.)
• Adapted/refined slightly for SUNY IR (i.e. permission, description, quality)
• Student help
• Local server for review and OLIS access (FTP)

15. • “Adopt” / “Adapt” established best practices (ie. archival scans,
derivatives)
• Best Laid Plans - “Proof of concept” - paper vs. product
• added fields, tweaked DC subfields,
• re-scanned/re-submitted for quality,
• re-scanned/re-submitted for signature page,
• re-scanned/re-submitted for .. ummm … student error

16. • Too much description? PDF Full-text is keyword indexed in DSpace
• Quality of art images reflect time/technology/experience
• Plans to review and refine permission letters

18. The Goal? Or Control?
Can we build an IR ourselves,
at campus level? Absolutely
What would we gain? Control
What would we lose? The Goal
Consistency
Promotional Value
Community Stewardship
A Whole Greater Than Sum of its Parts
Prestige/Impact of a SUNY
“Body of Scholarship”

19. Feel Free to Contact Me with Questions:
IR Student Scholarship Resources – http://scholes.alfred.edu/msmith/dspace/