Feeding the Fledgling Repository: Starting an Institutional Repository at an Academic Health Sciences Library

In 2005, the Scott Memorial Library at Thomas Jefferson University started an institutional repository (IR), the Jefferson Digital Commons (JDC) . Originally intended as a showcase for faculty scholarship, it has evolved to serve also as a university press for original journals and newsletters, and as an institutional archive. Many lessons have been learned about marketing techniques, common IR issues, and advantages of an IR for a library. IR recruitment has come to be viewed as yet another form of collection development and has been integrated into all forms of the Library's outreach. Jefferson's academic health sciences environment has proven similar to other academic environments on issues of acceptance and participation.