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This poster presents usage data on institutional repositories at research intensive institutions across the United States. The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education categorizes academic institutions in the United States by levels of research activity, funding, and commitment to doctoral programs. There are currently 146 Research 1 (R1) institutions: 107 public institutions and 39 private institutions. Both the Colorado School of Mines (Mines) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are R1 institutions. An increase of research activity has allowed Mines to recently join the R1 rank. Both Mines and CMU host institutional repositories to disseminate their communities’ scholarly outputs. This poster explores how the institutional repositories at Mines, a newly designated R1 institution, and at CMU, an established R1 institution, compare with each other as well as with other similarly sized institutions in both the United States and internationally. This poster presents key findings and data visualizations from the comparison data on institutional repositories, including size, content type, numbers of repositories and types (such as institutional, data, and archival), software types, staffing, and funding. Data considered in these comparisons will also include institution-level data such as number of students, faculty, budget, and library statistics.

This project compares the Colorado School of Mines (Mines) Library and Repository with other similarly sized public institutions and with the other R1 universities in Colorado. This poster presents data on institutional repositories at research intensive institutions across the United States, with a specific focus on Mines. There are currently 146 Research 1 (R1) institutions in the Carnegie Classification: 107 public institutions and 39 private institutions. Colorado School of Mines is compared to 27 R1 public universities that have the smallest library budgets (salaries plus materials). This is the 4th quartile of 107 public universities found in the NCES database. Mines is also compared to five R1 institutions in the state of Colorado.

Colorado School of Mines recently migrated from a consortial DSpace repository which was managed by a member library, to a commercial hosted DSpace repository, now called the Mines Repository. The presenters received administrative privileges in the new repository, and this added to the migration learning curve. The new repository host provided documentation and several communication channels concerning the migration. However, the library was not given an easy-to-read and follow checklist of action items as the migration moved forward. After searching the literature, not many articles were found to include a desired migration checklist related to repositories. As the presenters learned more about administering the new repository, they created a basic checklist to keep track of the moving parts of the migration process. For example, they wanted to be sure that digitized items and associated metadata migrated correctly. They also worked to ensure that hyperlinks, search features, specific administrative actions (e.g. editing records, creating collections), and integrations (e.g. SSO, DOIs) were progressing and working as expected. This checklist served as a visual reminder, showing what had been accomplished as well as items and processes that still required attention. The checklist was intended to be a living document; members of the Mines Repository Working Group were encouraged to add items to the list and to participate in testing. It is meant to be platform agnostic, and this could be adapted by other organizations considering a repository migration. We plan to show the major components of the checklist, and to request feedback from conference attendees.

Subject specialist positions in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) often emphasize an understanding of the subject as well as knowledge of librarianship. Masters of Library Science (MLS) students and newly graduated librarians without formal STEM backgrounds can find it difficult to gain the skills or experience desired for these positions. The authors are designing a certification program curriculum to supplement the formal MLS curriculum. The goal of the program is to better equip MLS students and new professionals with the skills to be a good STEM librarian. Students will gain practical knowledge of a range of science and engineering disciplines to better understand their working environment. To inform the development of the program, the authors performed an investigatory analysis of the skills necessary for success as subject specialists, with a review of the literature, analysis of job ads, and a survey of current STEM librarians' responsibilities and backgrounds. This analysis supports the position that a subject background is an asset for STEM librarians, providing the knowledge to enhance their performance, communicate more effectively with users, and broaden their choices in the job market. A STEM certification program for librarians can provide a unique and valuable continuing education experience in this area.

This paper reports on the evaluation of local usage statistics of a specific set of chemistry journals at the University of Denver in Colorado, USA. The objective of the study is to demonstrate that commercial publishers in chemistry charge considerably more for their journals than those from the non-commercial sector. There are three variables that are considered in this research: institutional cost of the journal, cost per Thomson Scientific Impact Factor (IF), and cost per article downloaded. In the defined set of 65 journals, it is found that commercial publishers charge more for their journals by a ratio of 2.59. Commercial publishers cost more per impact factor by a ratio of 3.20 and significantly more per local article download by a ratio of 6.16. This research demonstrates that local usage statistics should be used as part of the journal evaluation process.