University Libraries
eCommons downloads surpass 400,000; Digital Commons crosses half-billion mark
By Maureen Schlangen
This month, as UD’s institutional repository surpassed a milestone of 400,000 downloads of its open-access content, its host, the bepress Digital Commons Network, surpassed half a billion.
The network includes more than 500 institutions, libraries and organizations worldwide, from research universities and liberal arts colleges to health care networks, law schools, and research institutes.
The most frequently downloaded content from the Digital Commons network is not freely available anywhere else, reported bepress, whose platform expanded the scope of institutional repositories beyond their traditional focus -- previously published faculty articles.
Readership of eCommons reflects this as well, evidence of which is this list of items in eCommons with 1,000 or more downloads:
* The Disney Evolution: Princesses as Positive Role Models (5,645): Honors thesis by Alexandria Irene Lueke
* Case Studies on Educational Administration (3,679): Excerpt of book by Theodore J. Kowalski (educational leadership)
* The Speaker: The Tradition and Practice of Public Speaking (2,750): Excerpt of book by Joseph M. Valenzano III (communication) and Stephen W. Braden
* Test Items in the Complete and Short Forms of the BOT-2 that Contribute Substantially to Motor Performance Assessments in Typically Developing Children 6-10 Years of Age (2,477): Article by Kadi Carmosino, Ashley Grzeszczak, Kaylie McMurray, Ali Olivo, Bo Slutz, Brittany Zoll, Betsy Donahoe-Fillmore, C. Jayne Brahler (physical therapy)
* Public Relations in Schools (2,051): Excerpt from book by Theodore J. Kowalski (educational leadership)
* Academic Integrity: A Saudi Student Perspective (1,943): Article by Nasser Razek (formerly of counselor education and human services)
* The Speaker's Primer (1,905): Excerpt of book by Joseph M. Valenzano III (communication), Stephen W. Braden and Melissa A. Broeckelman-Post
* Worth 1,000 Words: Using Instagram to Engage Library Users (1,820): Conference paper by Nicole Tekulve and Katy Kelly (libraries)
* Called to Evangelize: The Story of Adele Brise and the Mariophany that Changed her Life (1,752): Article by Edward Looney in Vol. 62 of the Mariological Society of America journal Marian Studies
* La Salette: Bibliographie (1,582): Bibliography by Jean Stern in Vol. 7 of the International Marian Research Institute journal Marian Library Studies
* Jesus wearing crown of thorns holy card (1,485): Part of the U.S. Catholic Special Collection
* Audit Committee Effectiveness: A Synthesis of the Empirical Audit Committee Literature (1,397): Article by Todd F. DeZoort, Dana R. Hermanson, Deborah S. Archambeault (accounting) and Scott A. Reed
* Daytonian 1975 (1,327): A University of Dayton yearbook
* Advanced Water Distribution Modeling and Management (1,269): Excerpt of a book by Thomas Walski, Donald V. Chase (civil and environmental engineering and engineering management), Dragan A. Savic, Walter Grayman, Stephen Beckwith and Edmundo Koelle
* The Gender Pay Gap; Continually Hurting Women (1,169): Essay by Grant A. Johnson in the English department's Line by Line: A Journal of Beginning Student Writing
* Female Bodybuilders: Caught in the Crossfire of Patriarchy and Capitalism (1,108): Honors thesis by Kimberly Michelle Land
* The Practice of Government Public Relations (1,085): Excerpt from book by Mordecai Lee, Grant W. Neeley (political science) and Kendra Stewart
* Intertextuality and Ideology: Jane Austen's 'Pride and Prejudice' and James Fordyce's 'Sermons to Young Women' (1,059): Book chapter by Laura Vorachek (English)
* The Human Right to Water and Advocacy for Urban Water Supply: After the Privatization Struggles (1,013): Paper by Paul Nelson, presented at the University of Dayton Human Rights Center's 2013 Social Practice of Human Rights conference
* Cultural Impacts on Saudi Students at a Mid-western American University (1,010): Article by Nasser Razek (counselor education and human services) and Sandra C. Coyner
* The School Superintendent: Roles, Challenges, and Issues (1,006): Article by Theodore J. Kowalski (educational leadership) and C. Cryss Brunner
* Ethics in Public Management (1,004): Excerpt from book by H. George Frederickson and Richard K. Ghere (political science)
* Textual Evolution of Chapter VIII of Lumen Gentium (1,000): Article by Charles W. Neumann in Vol. 37 of the Mariological Society of America journal Marian Studies
About eCommons: Launched publicly in October 2013, the University of Dayton's institutional repository now has more than 24,000 items ranging from faculty scholarly and creative works to University documents and records. To inquire about adding your work to the repository, contact Maureen Schlangen or email eCommons@udayton.edu.
About bepress: Founded by professors in 1999, bepress serves academia with a repository model that is unlimited, cloud-based, and fully hosted, and includes dedicated consulting and support. Its repositories seamlessly integrate with the Expert Gallery Suite, which allows users to assemble collections of content and expertise for particular uses.
— Maureen Schlangen, e-scholarship and communications manager