AASL Column, October 2019
Lucy Campbell and Barbara Opar, column editors
Column by Barbara Opar
Open Access and Architectural Content
Are you interested in seeing thesis or capstone works from other architecture schools? Have you wanted to read the new work of colleagues who share your interests? Then you may be able to find that content in an institutional repository.
The trend toward Open Access is growing. The 12th annual International Open Access Week this year is October 21st to the 27th. Members of this audience are hopefully all aware of this concept. Perhaps your institutions even have mandates for open access publishing. But to recap the words of Peter Suber: “Open Access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions” (http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/brief.htm)
Open content is expanding to new forms like textbooks. One of the richest areas of open content though is the institutional repository where the institution manages and disseminates the digital scholarship of its faculty, staff, and students. The institution – and more recently often the library- preserves and distributes the scholarly, professional, scientific and creative output of its community. Generally, the output is full-text and may be multi-media. Often included are dissertations, master’s theses, capstone papers, and honors theses. Many institutions have found that adding this type of content enhances the reputation of the institution. Faculty work may include periodical articles (generally pre or post-print), book chapters, conference presentations or exhibition material. The content of the repository is usually searchable by department, author, and keyword. For faculty, benefits include quick and easy dissemination, discoverability, more usage, and improved impact.
So please explore the rich content the Open Access initiative provides by checking out the list of Open Access Repositories in North America as provided:
Boston Architectural College 1 – Boston Architectural College 2
California Polytechnic State University
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Clemson University 1- Clemson University 2 – Clemson University 3 – Clemson University 4
Columbia University 1 – Columbia University 2
Florida International University
Georgia Institute of Technology
Illinois Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Montana State University – Bozeman
New Jersey Institute of Technology
North Carolina State University
Washington University in St. Louis
University at Buffalo –(Dissertations and Theses Only)
University of British Columbia
University of California, Berkeley 1 – University of California, Berkeley 2
University of California, Los Angeles 1 – University of California, Los Angeles 2
University of Colorado Boulder
University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Nebraska – Lincoln
University of Oklahoma – Arch Open Access Started
University of Southern California 1 – University of Southern California 2
University of Texas at Arlington
This is a preliminary list of open access institutional repositories in North America with architectural content. Please send additions or corrections to Barbara Opar at baopar@syr.edu.