WINTER 2012 - National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and ...

Sharing Student Research with the World
Behrman, 2007; Schacter & Schwarz, 2009; Shields & Tajalli, 2006) in public
administration/public affairs education. In a similar vein, this study looks at the
download rates of capstone papers at Texas State University and examines its
implications for public administration pedagogy, research, and practice.
OPEN ACCESS DIGITAL REPOSITORIES
Open access digital institutional repositories are a relatively new technology
that universities are using to become more engaged in scholarly communication.
Scherlen and Robinson (2008, p. 58) define open access as
free availability of scholarly literature on the public internet, permitting
anyone to read, download, copy, distribute, or print the full text
without restrictions (other than to give authors control over the integrity
of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited).
When scholarly communication was trapped in paper, 2 its availability was
limited to those with access to the library (and copy machine). Once scholarly
communication was digitized, it was able to move easily; and well outside the
walls of the library. Note that scholarly communication is an umbrella term that
describes communication such as faculty authored journal articles, conference
papers, monographs, student works, and administrative documents.
The complicated, short history of open access digital repositories cannot be
captured here. Nevertheless, it should be noted that online storage costs dropped
and standards of digital preservation came together so that libraries looked at
open access digital repositories as a way to preserve and distribute the scholarly
communication produced by faculty, students, and programs (Lynch, 2003).
Changes in technology made repositories more affordable (Lynch, 2003, p. 327).
Lynch (2003, p. 328) defines a university-based digital repository as
a set of services that a university offers to the members of its community
for the management and dissemination of digital materials created
by the institution and its community members. It is most essentially
an organizational commitment to the stewardship of these digital
materials including long-term preservation where appropriate, as well
as organization and access or distribution.
When mature, university repositories would contain the “intellectual works of faculty
and students.”
While universities want to preserve and distribute their scholarly communication,
they do not want to clutter the Internet with marginal or poor scholarship.
Hence, scholarly communication should have some kind of quality control
(Levin et al., 2005).
Journal of Public Affairs Education 159