eScholarship Repository Update

The eScholarship Repository–a central location for faculty working papers, pre-publications, and technical reports–is entering the second phase in its rollout.  To see the repository in action, including a complete list of groups that have joined, visit http://repositories.cdlib.org/escholarship/.

In the first phase (begun in April 2002), UC Organized Research Units (ORUs), Multi-Campus Research Units (MRUs), centers, and departments with established pre-publication series were invited to include their content in the repository.  Identification and initial discussions with these early adopters were greatly assisted by staff at campus libraries, following briefings with ULs and campus visits by eScholarship staff.  eScholarship will continue with campus visits this fall for forums with faculty and with librarians.  A complete schedule is available at http://www.escholarship.cdlib.org/campusvisits.html.

To date 25 ORUs, centers, and departments from 5 campuses have joined the repository, and 37 UC staff have been trained to upload papers to the repository. The eScholarship Repository now contains 427 papers.  There have been 17,317full-text downloads since April–over 2,000 last week alone.

The second phase of the repository’s rollout begins this month.  The repository is being extended to all UC campuses and all disciplines; initially most units were from the social sciences, but groups from the humanities and sciences have also joined. bepress, the company whose software is used in the repository, has been engaged by the CDL’s eScholarship program to provide training and support for the repository rollout.

Although most trainings on the eScholarship Repository are conducted over the phone, there are occasional on-campus trainings, though none are scheduled right now.  Library staff are always welcome to attend part or all of a repository training session.  A schedule of those trainings can be found at http://repositories.cdlib.org/escholarship/campus_training.html.

Initial contact with campus units is made in a letter written jointly by principals from CDL and bepress introducing the repository and its benefits.  Follow-up contact will be made by bepress over the next few months, though some potential repository participants may direct questions to library staff as well.

Any UC department, research unit, or center interested in joining the repository should visit http://repositories.cdlib.org/escholarship/join.html, which has complete information on the joining process and a submission form.