The global impact of Scholarly Commons grew again in 2018-19. Submissions increased by 25% over FY 18 and downloads grew by 50% in FY 19. New conferences, such as the President’s Art Exhibit and the Southeastern- Atlantic Regional Conference on Differential Equations, were added. The highlight of the year in terms of new conferences and events for the Daytona Beach staff on the team was the 2019 Digital Commons Southeast User Group meeting, which was not only hosted in Scholarly Commons but also took place on the Daytona Beach Campus on May 31.
The goal to work with faculty and other groups on the three campuses to increase Open Educational Resources in Scholarly Commons was quite successful. The team added faculty-authored textbooks, open access textbooks adopted by faculty, and course packs, containing open access or library-licensed items. Interest in this initiative was strong enough to warrant a new librarian position and the Daytona Beach Campus welcomed new team member, Cassandra Konz in late May. In addition to this goal, the team also began to develop avenues for faculty to organize and provide open access to research datasets. The first objective of this goal was met with the creation of an area in Scholarly Commons for small datasets.
With the new areas Scholarly Commons supports, the Oversight Team continues to adapt. In January the team welcomed new member, Jim Solti, representing Worldwide, with a special emphasis on incorporating OER into online courses. The team also began working with the newly-appointed Associate Provost for Research, Dr. Remzi Seker. As we welcomed our new colleagues, we also said goodbye to Special Projects Librarian, Jane Deighan, who retired in June. Jane has been part of the team from the beginning and certainly wins the prize for setting up the most SelectedWorks pages and facilitating submissions for faculty on all three campuses. She will be missed at our meetings but she leaves a strong and enduring legacy
