Student works in the institutional repository: An analysis of interest and impact

Eastern Michigan University has highlighted student work in its institutional repository since 2009. Starting with graduate theses and dissertations, the repository’s student presence has grown with the addition of other works, such as honors theses, student journals, and capstone projects. Including student work in our repository fulfills many goals. It allows EMU to showcase and preserve the excellent scholarship produced by our students, and then make these works available to users around the world. These collections serve as recruitment tools to demonstrate what prospective students may achieve through the opportunities EMU offers. The repository provides our students with a space where they can promote their accomplishments and archive their works, and also affords faculty advisors and mentors a means of appraising their roles in student scholarship. One method of determining if student work in the repository is meeting these goals is through investigating their usage. This presentation will examine usage of all student work in our institutional repository –theses and dissertations, articles in student journals, and other items. Download rates, citations to these works in scholarly literature, and social media mentions will be used to explore the impact of and interest in student-authored works in Eastern Michigan University’s institutional repository