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:

Andrews University

Arizona State University

Auburn University

Ball State University

Boston Architectural College 1 – Boston Architectural College 2

California Polytechnic State University

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona

Carnegie Mellon University

Clemson University 1- Clemson University 2 – Clemson University 3 – Clemson University 4

Columbia University 1 – Columbia University 2

Cornell University

Florida Atlantic University

Florida International University

Georgia Institute of Technology

Harvard University

Illinois Institute of Technology

Kent State University

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

McGill University

Mississippi State University

Montana State University – Bozeman

New Jersey Institute of Technology

North Carolina State University

North Dakota State University

Ohio State University

Princeton University

Rhode Island School of Design

Roger Williams University

Syracuse University

Washington University in St. Louis

University of Arizona

University of Arkansas

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

University of Colorado Boulder

University of Idaho

University of Illinois

University of Kansas

University of Massachusetts Amherst

University of Memphis

University of Michigan

University of Minnesota

University of Nebraska – Lincoln

University of New Mexico

University of Notre Dame

University of Oklahoma – Arch Open Access Started

University of Southern California 1 – University of Southern California 2

University of South Florida

University of Texas at Arlington

University of Texas at Austin

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.