Official Launch December 2, 2008!
Island Scholar (IS) is the institutional repository for scholarly publications by the UPEI community. It is a joint project of the UPEI Robertson Library and the UPEI Office of Research and Development. Unlike other institutional repositories, IS is pre-populated with citations to most UPEI scholarly publications. Full text to those citations will be uploaded when possible as an ongoing process. Island Scholar is part of the Virtual Research Environment at UPEI. Why have an institutional repository? In last few decades, scholars have become keenly aware of the crisis in scholarly communications, whereby publicly funded research is published in high-priced journals and bought back by cash-strapped libraries, often at subscription prices too high for all but the richest institutions. In response to this, libraries and their academic colleagues have taken a number of steps, including two national site licensing projects, CNSLP and CRKN, which have allowed libraries to provide access to more journals but cost remains a major factor. As well, additional approaches to redefine the scholarly publishing landscape are leading to the development of the open access movement. Open access is not only changing how scholarly work is communicated but is also having a positive influence on other things like the impact factor of research. For example, freely available open access articles are cited 2-3 times more frequently than those available via traditional subscriptions. These and other efforts are releasing scholarship from behind fee-based walls – ensuring that knowledge is more widely available not just to academics, but also to the broader public. An important aspect in the open access movement is the growth of an inter-connected web of institutional repositories which stewards the academic output of individual institutions. How do I search IslandScholar? Use the Search box or Browse by Department or Faculty name. The search box uses simple keywords, and accepts standard Boolean syntax. It assumes "and" so put exact phrases in quotation marks. Why are only some works available in full text? IslandScholar is also a central bibliography for all scholarly works of UPEI faculty. Sometimes faculty are unable to secure rights to upload their work, or choose not to. It is also a work in progress, and more full text is being uploaded by faculty every week, for older and newer works as they can. If there is no full text, how can I link a citation to my own library's resources? IslandScholar is COinS compliant. That means that if you have a COinS compliant web browser plugin installed in your web browser, you should see a link provided to your own library's openurl (aka "SFX" or "GetIt" server) server which will help you locate the resource in your library's holdings. Two popular examples of COinS compliant browser plugins are the Openly OCLC OpenURL Referrer (which anyone can install) and the LibX Toolbar (which requires your library to have built a custom edition - ask your librarians for details). What am I allowed to do with full text works I find here? That varies by work. Look for the "use permission" label on the full record. You may need to contact the publisher or the author if so indicated. If the author chose to release the work under the Creative Commons license, you should read the plain English summary of that license to get an idea of what you can do. How can I link to a particular work in IslandScholar? The URL in your web browser address bar that is visible when you are viewing the full descriptive record (citation, abstract, and link to full text if available) is a stable, persistent link available for you to copy and use elsewhere. Drupal 5, Fedora 2, and the UPEI-developed Islandora module to connect Drupal and Fedora. It is OAI-PMH compliant.
For more information, please contact vresupport@upei.ca |
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