Transcending Institutions and Borders: 21st Century Digital Scholarship at K-State

Abstract

Digital scholarship of the 21 st century transcends institutions and borders with its freedom from print and physical locations. This case study reviews aspects of establishing a sustainable digital scholarship center, supporting open access through the institutional repository (K-State Research Exchange-K-REx) and an open access publishing platform (New Prairie Press-NPP) along with other outreach efforts. The Center for the Advancement of Digital Scholarship (CADS) at K-State Libraries serves our campus community, but digital scholarship extends K-State's impact far beyond Manhattan, Kansas. Highlighting the scholarship at our campus is only one small piece of the landscape. Collaboration on campus with both faculty and students includes working with authors, editors, and site administrators; but our roles in educating, publishing, supporting, and managing open access, including data management, publishing funds and textbook initiatives, have broader implications. This paper illustrates strategies that support all types of digital scholarship and contends that single direct connections to K-State can translate into partnerships which have regional, national, and international reach.

Digital Scholarship Programs in Practice

“…Librarians at Kansas State, for example, illustrate how they have built a digital scholarship program around digital publishing and a robust institutional repository, stressing the impact well beyond the confines of their campus. 29 At University of Colorado-Boulder, the team of librarians and technologists that comprise that school's Center for Research Data and Digital Scholarship focus on the promotion of data literacy. 30 University of North Carolina-Charlotte librarians describe the shift from à la carte digital services to a more formal program and staffing model in their Digital Scholarship Lab.…”