Speed Dating: Matchmaking with Scholars Archive

Institutional Repositories (IRs) are known to be awesome for storing, preserving and sharing traditional publication types. However, they can also provide an attractive platform to creatively showcase other forms of academic output that show value and demonstrate the impact an institution has in a particular area of research or subject area. During this segment, audience members will have the opportunity to mix and mingle with people who have worked with Scholars Archive, the University at Albany’s Institutional Repository, in a variety of these new and exciting ways. Through these interactions attendees will make new connections and find the perfect match for their scholarly output in Scholars Archive

Design Thinking Repository Services: ​ Lessons Learned from UAlbany’s COVID-19 and Minority Health Disparities in NYS Collection and Scholars Archive

In April 2020, the University at Albany was commissioned to study the factors causing disproportionate harm from COVID-19 for New York Latinx and Black individuals. Thirty-five interdisciplinary UAlbany Engaged Researchers partnered with colleagues and community organizations to research solutions to these disparities. The UAlbany Libraries’ Scholarly Communication Team recognized the opportunity to collect, preserve, and distribute this Minority Health Disparities (MHD) project’s assets from the University’s repository, Scholars Archive. Following early conversations with the project lead, an expert in digital government, the author successfully demonstrated the repository’s value. With her support, and with a design thinking approach, the authors worked collaboratively to build a robust project collection that would better serve the scholars, their research, and the communities they were aiming to reach. With lessons learned from this project, the Scholarly Communication Team is looking to more deeply partner with other departments working to support the University’s research enterprise. This project has served as a launching point for further weaving the repository, and associated services, into the fabric of UAlbany’s research activities and related community engagement. The authors will share the MHD project story as one approach to offering solutions in a time of great need and change

If You Build It, Will They Come? Collateral Benefits of Changing Strategies to Facilitate Faculty Participation in a Campus IR

In October, 2014, the University at Albany Libraries launched Scholars Archive (SA), the University’s Institutional Repository (IR). Our first year of trial and error generated mixed results and low participation by non-library faculty. In year two, we redeveloped our strategy to yield benefits beyond simply increasing repository content. The new approach has three prongs: targeting outreach to deans, department heads and campus wide meetings instead of targeting to individual faculty members; second, we now provide a “full service” model for submitting content instead of merely mediating a “self-service” workflow model; third, we strategically highlight the IR platform’s available metrics to tell stories which vividly demonstrate the dissemination and impact of scholars’ work when it is open access. As campus constituencies learn about Scholars Archive, interest “snowballs,” and we succeed in progressively reaching ever more faculty members. Interest from graduate students is also growing. An emerging strategy is to garner buy-in from campus administration as our Interim Dean works to educate the Provost about the benefits of Scholars Archive for both faculty and the University at Albany as a whole. A collateral benefit of these efforts is a broadened faculty perception of the libraries’ institutional roles. Outreach for Scholars Archive serves to demonstrate the value of the University Libraries as a whole on campus. We are now viewed as partners in scholarly communications initiatives: library’s role as publisher, library as an open access solution, and library as a source of impact assessment

Scholars Archive Snapshot: Showcase Your Research

Scholars Archive is the University at Albany\u27s Institutional Repository (IR). Scholars Archive provides a way for the University at Albany, faculty, staff, researchers and students to collect their scholarly work in a centralized place where it will be preserved, stored securely and easily shared. This session will highlight some of the benefits that Scholars Archive can offer. Jodi Boyle and Wendy West, both from the University at Albany Libraries, share their experiences with Scholars Archive

Effects of school-based interventions on mental health stigmatization: a systematic review

Stigmatizing, or discriminatory, perspectives and behaviour, which target individuals on the basis of their mental health, are observed in even the youngest school children. We conducted a systematic review of the published and unpublished, scientific literature concerning the benefits and harms of school-based interventions, which were directed at students 18 years of age or younger to prevent or eliminate such stigmatization. Forty relevant studies were identified, yet only a qualitative synthesis was deemed appropriate. Five limitations within the evidence base constituted barriers to drawing conclusive inferences about the effectiveness and harms of school-based interventions: poor reporting quality, a dearth of randomized controlled trial evidence, poor methods quality for all research designs, considerable clinical heterogeneity, and inconsistent or null results. Nevertheless, certain suggestive evidence derived both from within and beyond our evidence base has allowed us to recommend the development, implementation and evaluation of a curriculum, which fosters the development of empathy and, in turn, an orientation toward social inclusion and inclusiveness. These effects may be achieved largely by bringing especially but not exclusively the youngest children into direct, structured contact with an infant, and likely only the oldest children and youth into direct contact with individuals experiencing mental health difficulties. The possible value of using educational activities, materials and contents to enhance hypothesized benefits accruing to direct contact also requires investigation. Overall, the curriculum might serve as primary prevention for some students and as secondary prevention for others