University Library announces 10000 items, release of UDSpace

University of Delaware Library

The University of Delaware Library has announced that the 10,000th item has been added to the Institutional Repository of the library. In addition, the release of UDSpace, the newly renamed Institutional Repository, is available at this website.

An Institutional Repository is a digital library system used to capture, index, preserve and distribute the intellectual output of the University of Delaware research faculty, staff and students in digital formats.

UDSpace (formerly named DSpace) now includes over 35 “communities” and more than 10,000 items, a remarkable achievement in just eight years. These items encompass disciplines across the University and include original research in digital form such as articles, working papers, technical reports, conference papers, books, data sets, climatological data, scientific images, historic census data and more.

UDSpace through a single interface provides comprehensive access to this otherwise difficult-to-locate research of the University. Recent enhancements to UDSpace include improvements to the search interface, an improved item display and a significantly faster response time. All of these create an improved user experience.

The University of Delaware Library promotes and continues to encourage the University of Delaware faculty to consider placing research in digital form for which they hold or can secure the electronic rights in UDSpace.

Chandra Reedy, professor, Center for Historic Architecture and Design, is currently in the process of adding approximately 250 images to UDSpace. She said, “My National Science Foundation grant ‘Calibration of Digital Image Analysis Protocols for Archaeological Ceramics’ required that I have the experimental images publicly available so that other researchers can use them. The ability to easily deposit these images in UDSpace is the perfect way to meet this mandate.”

“UDSpace is a work in progress that continually evolves. The often unpublished research treasures of the University of Delaware faculty are an important complement to their published works,” said Susan Brynteson, vice provost and May Morris University Librarian.

Staff members of the University of Delaware Library who were involved in the recent enhancements to UDSpace include Mark Grabowski, head of the Library Data and Server Management Department; Keith Jones, computing support specialist II of the Library Data and Server Management Department; and Gregg Silvis, associate university librarian for Information Technology and Digital Initiatives.