Purdue Libraries launches new online research locator

The system's first two components, e-Pubs and e-Archives, are active and available on the Purdue Libraries' Web site. A third component, e-Data, will launch next year.

e-Pubs gives access to dissertations, reports, papers and other scholarly publications written or organized by members of the Purdue community. e-Archives contains valuable collections of primary source materials, such as papers, photographs and audiovisual materials created or collected by Purdue affiliates. e-Data will provide access to research data generated and collected at Purdue.

"Purdue e-Scholar will bring Purdue to the forefront of research universities," said James L. Mullins, dean of Libraries. "This portal gives access to rare and unique items and information, providing a boon to research and discovery endeavors."

e-Archives allows users worldwide to study Purdue library holdings, including unique materials in archives and special collections. Increased online access will better preserve the archives by decreasing the damage caused by manual inspection of fragile materials. In the first half of September, prior to the service being publicized, the site received more than 100,000 page views from four continents.

e-Pubs includes the full text of all Purdue dissertations since 1997. Purdue Libraries is seeking additional content from departments and centers across campus. Recently, a selection of physics and electrical, computer and civil engineering technical reports and research publications have been added. Currently, three scholarly journals are produced by Purdue Press through e-Pubs. e-Pubs' nearly 6,000 documents received more than 100,000 hits during the five-month period concluding at the end of August.

Mullins said librarians can help identify, organize and manage content, including new journals and published or unpublished materials.

"Copyright must be considered when depositing previously published works," Mullins said. "But many publishers now allow institutional archiving of journal articles."

Purdue's e-Data will allow researchers from across the nation and around the world to share data sets. Libraries will provide the organization needed to ensure that data can be found while employing parameters that protect the original researcher's data rights.

Purdue e-Scholar is based on a framework developed for the Distributed Institutional Repository (DIR), a Purdue-developed system created to manipulate large data sets that was recently featured in the "Chronicle of Higher Education."

"The DIR uses a unique approach to access a number of localized repositories by sharing metadata," said D. Scott Brandt, Purdue Libraries associate dean for research. "A search on e-Scholar will yield both documents and data on a topic, for example a dissertation on groundwater management and a data set on local water quality."

Libraries and Information Technology at Purdue are collaborating to develop the Distributed Institutional Repository and are working with the university's Cyber Center on new initiatives to help researchers store, sort, archive, retrieve and manage large-scale information.

"Library science is stepping in to fulfill this role for today's researchers who are often drowning in a sea of data," Brandt said.

One such researcher, agronomy professor Sylvie Brouder, helped Libraries test early versions of the Distributed Institutional Repository by providing her data sets.

"Academic and governmental researchers will benefit from the ability to search and retrieve data," Brouder said. "Without a repository, there is a major barrier."

Mullins said it is important for every university to explore and implement new ways to provide and preserve needed information.

"We have contributed to that goal," Mullins said. "Purdue e-Scholar will soon become an integral, valued part of the university by ensuring access to digital information today and preserving the digital record for generations to come."

Writer: Jim Schenke, (765) 494-6262, jschenke@purdue.edu

Sources: James L. Mullins, (765) 494-2900, jmullins@purdue.edu

D. Scott Brandt, professor of library science and associate dean for research for Purdue Libraries, (765) 494-2889, techman@purdue.edu

Sylvie Brouder, (765) 496-1489, sbrouder@purdue.edu

Michael Witt, senior research systems administrator for Purdue Libraries, (765) 494- 8703, mwitt@purdue.edu

Michael Fosmire, Head, Physical Sciences, Engineering and Technology Division, Associate Professor of Library Science, (765) 494-2858, fosmire@purdue.edu

Rachel Schurz, Libraries marketing associate, (765) 496-3294, rschurz@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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