Post-secondary Partnership Showcases Research

A new partnership between Vancouver Island University (VIU) and Royal Roads University (RRU) will increase public access to student and faculty research. Library staff at the two universities will collaborate on a three-year pilot initiative to share an online institutional research repository.

RRU University Librarian Rosie Croft says the similar applied research mandate of both institutions offers a natural partnership opportunity with the goal of showcasing research through a shared platform.

“By giving our research a new online platform and a shared presence with VIU, we can increase the profile of our student and faculty members’ work by making it more visible and easily accessible to the public,” says Croft. “There are many benefits to partnering with another institution on this initiative: cross-training, knowledge sharing, cost-savings and sustainability in terms of human resources. The pilot will help us experiment and learn what works for our institutions to ensure student and faculty research has a far-reaching impact on society. ”

VIU University Librarian Tim Atkinson says he is excited to work with Royal Roads on the shared repository and agrees it will amplify the impact of student and faculty research.

“By sharing the platform and costs we will gain increased functionality which will enhance the experience of finding the research material,” says Atkinson. “It will also allow us to understand more about who is finding the material and what material is being most heavily accessed. That information is useful to help students and faculty understand the impact of their work and it will help us to see the reach of the material in the repository.”

Members of the public will be able to search the two institutions’ research projects together or separately using simple search terms. The research repository will also align with granting agencies’ desire to share student and faculty research results.

Launching this fall, the shared institutional research repository will be accessible to the public through the Royal Roads and VIU library websites using open-source software, DSpace.