In July, the Sladen Library introduced Scholarly Commons, an institutional repository created to collect and showcase journal articles, meeting abstracts, book chapters, books, and other scholarly works published by members of the Henry Ford Health System community. This digital collection of historical, recent, and ahead-of-print research has grown to include more than 6,000 entries, with library staff depositing more each day.
With the number of journals, articles, and access points growing exponentially, Scholarly Commons narrows the focus to output from institutional members, helping the HFHS community to better know itself and its expertise. Tools for finding and sharing content abound, from standard search tools to email alerts, and departments can easily embed an RSS feed on their homepages to showcase their own work. An embeddable map displays the location of recent downloads, allowing authors to track where their work is being viewed and downloaded all around the world. On the other side of the page, users can “follow” authors and share their content via social media outlets, and content is searchable via Google and accessible to the public. These access services primarily exist to raise the visibility and increase the accessibility of HFHS scholarly activity.
Along with access, another main tenet of librarianship, the preservation of scholarly work is a major impetus for building an institutional repository service. In addition to daily scholarly activity, the collection includes the Henry Ford Hospital Medical Journal, a spiritual ancestor to Scholarly Commons that recorded and distributed the professional activities of the Henry Ford Hospital staff until it ceased publication in 1992. Posters and presentations from conferences and forums that are featured—often exclusively—will be available to access earlier, easier, and permanently. If an author leaves HFHS, work during their time here will remain in the repository.
While repositories do perform an archival service, they are not a sealed vault for storing treasure or remains. The Scholarly Commons is intended to be more of a house of knowledge, bustling with activity, connection, and growth. So take a look, make yourself at home, and share what you can. Scholarly Commons: a home for your work.
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