Access to the research and expertise of faculty members will be greatly increased through an initiative underway in 91ÑÇÉ«'s Faculty of Education. Its DSpace Repository project will create links to a virtual space where faculty can house their electronic assets (journal articles, grey literature, e-books, PDFs, MP3s, videos and the like), thereby providing open access to their work.
The first phase of the repository project is underway. It will deposit digital assets into 91ÑÇÉ«’s institutional repository known as and then create links from the faculty profiles on the Faculty of Education Web site to 91ÑÇÉ«Space. In the second phase of the project, faculty profiles will be linked to electronic assets held on the Internet if copyright restrictions prevent the electronic assets from being placed in 91ÑÇÉ«Space.
The Faculty of Education's project is part of the 91ÑÇÉ« Libraries project, a partnership between 91ÑÇÉ« communities and the 91ÑÇÉ« Libraries. 91ÑÇÉ«Space content consists of collections produced by 91ÑÇÉ« communities. These collections are managed, preserved and made accessible by the 91ÑÇÉ« Library through software
“This is a great project that is going to be of benefit to everyone in the Faculty of Education – 
educators and students alike. Our Faculty is well known for the rich and diverse research that it produces," says Professor Steve Gaetz (left), associate dean of research & field development. “One of the challenges we have faced is making this wonderful research more visible to a wider audience and this DSpace Repository project will be an important means of reaching this goal.”
Both 91ÑÇÉ«Space and the faculty profiles can be viewed by the public. The Faculty of Education already has a virtual community on 91ÑÇÉ«Space, called “Faculty of Education”.
Some of the additional benefits of using 91ÑÇÉ«Space as a repository are:
- It creates a permanent place to house the important work of faculty members; it is not dependent on 91ÑÇÉ«’s subscription to a journal that contains a faculty member's work.
- It provides indicators of research results.
- It enables faculty members to link their personal Web sites to this resource containing their work to provide access for potential collaborators or students.
- It can be used with course management systems.
In addition to linking the faculty profiles to 91ÑÇÉ«Space, links will be made to the 91ÑÇÉ« libraries. Access to publications that are contained in 91ÑÇÉ«’s electronic library will require a Passport 91ÑÇÉ« authentication and cannot be viewed by the general public.
For more information, visit the Web site.