What is iDEA and the Drexel Academic Community?

The Drexel Academic Community is a major component of iDEA, the Drexel E-Repository and Archive.  iDEA is a centralized, virtual space for digital objects produced and approved by Drexel faculty including publications, reports, data sets, learning objects, and any other digital resource that faculty would like to make available via the world wide web.  iDEA is administered by the Drexel Libraries.

Why use iDEA to distribute your scholarly work?

**Provide free and open access to your scholarly work:  It is been estimated that providing free and open access doubles the number of citations across all disciplines.  Of the millions of articles published annually only 15% are being made available through self archiving in such places as the Drexel E-Repository and Archive.    

**Be reassured that your scholarly work is in a centralized and secure location:  iDEA is administered by the library and IRT with the goal of long term preservation.  The library staff administering iDEA is keenly aware of the problems with digital preservation.  All deposited items will be converted to preservation formats and migrated as needed to insure future access.  In addition, the web addresses assigned to your work in iDEA are created for long term access.  Keeping your work in a single place with a persistent web address provides flexibility in how and where you provide links to your work now and in the future. 

What are the current plans for the Drexel E-Repository?

iDEA administrators are in the first phase of an extensive collecting plan to populate the Drexel Academic Community in the iDEA.  It is the goal of the Drexel library to provide as comprehensive a record a possible of the scholarly work at Drexel from 2004 to the present.   

How can faculty contribute to the Drexel E-Repository?

The University Archivist is in charge of coordinating collecting efforts from Drexel faculty.  The process for participation is simple.  Contact Kevin Martin, University Archivist, and he will tell you how to make your scholarly work accessible through iDEA.  archives@drexel.edu / 215-895-1757