Kent State University Library introduced Digital Commons, a new research tool, to faculty and students Monday and Tuesday on the first floor of the University Library.

“Digital Commons is an open-access institutional repository that is intended to promote the scholarship and research at Kent State University,” said Elizabeth Richardson, the institutional repository manager for Digital Commons.

Digital Commons is a research tool licensed by BePress and available at universities nationwide, with Kent State being the most recent university to acquire it.

“Any other university that’s a part of the Digital-Commons network will also show up if you search through our system,” said Adam Steele, assistant professor in University Libraries who is involved with Digital Commons.

The kickstart event featured two days of sessions, many open to general audiences while some limited to library personnel, where attendees learned more about how to use Digital Commons from BePress employees.

“Some of the sessions were aimed at those of us who have been involved in building and putting together Digital Commons to help us learn better how to use it and all the possibilities of what we can do with it,” Richardson said.

Users can use Digital Commons to search, find and read research on topics they’re interested in, Richardson said. It also has an online publishing component that can be used for faculty and student research publications.

“It’s a really big deal for faculty,” Steele said. “It’s going to make their papers that they put up much more discoverable. People can just Google a topic, and it’s more likely that their research will come up and be used by other people.”

Digital Commons can be accessed at digitalcommons.kent.edu.

Contact Taylor Rollins at [email protected].