Congratulations to Harrison W. Inefuku, Digital Repository Coordinator at Iowa State University, named as one of “15 People to Watch in 2015” by the Des Moines Register. As the Library Journal put it so well, “We don’t see librarians on these types of lists all that often (why not?) so it’s not only exciting for Harrison Inefuku and his ISU colleagues but also for the entire library profession and OA movement. Congrats and kudos!!!” Here at bepress, we couldn’t be more proud to have Harrison as part of the bepress Digital Commons community.
Profiled in the “15 to Watch” were movers and shakers from all walks of life in Iowa including Gilbert Vicario, senior curator at the Des Moines Art Center; Stephanie Jenks, one of the world’s top young triathletes; and Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa. Harrison was nominated in the arena of education by Karen Lawson, associate professor and associate dean, collections and technical services, of the Iowa State University Library. She describes him in the Des Moines Register’s article as “the face and voice for open access to public research for all of us,” adding that “workers at public institutions are often unsung.”
“It’s really empowering people anywhere with an Internet connection to get access to research we’re doing here on campus,” Harrison said, giving an example of Iranian scholars barred from subscribing to U.S. journals who are able to access research at Iowa State through the institutional repository. A glance at the Readership Map on Iowa State University’s Digital Commons homepage reveals the truly global impact of their IR, Digital Repository @ Iowa State University. Just a few minutes of real-time downloads via the map revealed readers from Iraq, Iran, Egypt, France, Belgium, Singapore, India, Korea, and the U.S.—check out the map to see more!
High on Harrison’s priority list for 2015 is “is to encourage more undergraduate and graduate students to submit their work to the repository”—a goal with which he has already had success. Congratulations to Harrison and to all the Digital Commons administrators and librarians everywhere who carry on such important work!
