Doctoral student Plato L. Smith II recently received an 2009 Outstanding Paper Award from the Emerald Literati Network for his journal article, “Where IR you? Using ‘open access’ to extend the reach and richness of faculty research within a university.” The purpose of the paper was to clarify relationships between researchers, digital librarians, and catalogers in building a collection at an academic library [i.e. an institutional repository (IR)]. The paper:

… provides empirical insights about how faculty contribution is brought about during IR content building. It suggests that digital librarians act as “integrating forces” on two levels: integrating the elements of level of data curation for digital object representation and discoverability, and mediating between digital objects description and the researcher.

The journal article appeared in OCLC Systems & Services (v.24, no.3) and received an award for excellence as a highly commended paper.