OSU and OU Collaborate on Open-Access Repository

Thursday, January 16, 2014

To make the published results of research easily available to the public, the libraries at Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma have established SHAREOK,  an openly available website that will house the intellectual output of both universities. Content will ultimately include digital dissertations, faculty publications and research, digital special collections, open access publications, open educational resources and much more.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has asked researchers to develop plans to make the published results of federally funded research freely available to the public within one year of publication. Researchers are also called on to better account for and manage the digital research resulting from federally-funded scientific research. SHAREOK and the library related services address both topics.

In addition, SHAREOK is an example of meeting the goals set by Governor Mary Fallin in the “OneOklahoma: A Strategic Plan for Science and Technology in Oklahoma, 2012,” but it will not stop with just OSU and OU. SHAREOK is looking to potentially expand to other Oklahoma higher education institutions.

OSU Dean of Libraries Sheila Johnson and OU Dean of Libraries Rick Luce are championing the project on their respective campuses.

“As research libraries, it is our mission to preserve knowledge and make it available,” Johnson said. “Providing SHAREOK is a natural progression of the service we already provide. The new White House directive created a need in higher education that libraries are perfectly positioned to meet.”

“The University of Oklahoma is aggressively moving forward in addressing both existing and planned government requirements concerning research and associated data,” Luce said. “We’re making available to people on a global basis, the academic and scholarly research of this university as well as the vast and rich special collections of the Libraries.” “Combining resources to enhance the repository was mutually beneficial. SHAREOK directly supports the mission of each institution.

SHAREOK is part of a long-term strategy to support research and scholarship in Oklahoma.

“As we look to the future, this repository will serve as an important component in technical initiatives of the libraries, including cross department alerts of new research and the launch of knowledge creation platforms that will support the universities’ drive to continue to be recognized as leading research libraries not only in the State of Oklahoma and in the United States, but around the globe,” Luce said.

Faculty, students, staff and other individuals or entities associated with OSU or OU will be able to benefit from SHAREOK’s resources and can contribute content. The site is freely available at https://shareok.org.

For more information about SHAREOK, please contact shareok@ou.edu or shareok@okstate.edu.