The Li Ka Shing Library at the Singapore Management University launched its institutional repository, InK: Institutional Knowledge at SMU on a new platform on 18 January 2011. The platform, Digital Commons from Berkeley Electronic Press, is software-as-a-service (SAAS) and SMU is the first institution in Asia to use it.

InK represents the research and scholarly works of SMU faculty and postgraduate students, and the University archives. The repository currently holds 8,551 records, which had been accessed by users from over 70 countries.

InK was launched by Professor Rajendra K. Srivastava, Provost and Deputy President (Academic Affairs) of SMU. He spoke about InK being a platform to connect SMU with the research community, promoting multidisciplinary research and creating linkages to attract academic partners, industry partners and doctoral students.  As SMU has made the decision to be generous with copyright restrictions, Professor Raj encouraged faculty to use the platform to provide exposure to research and to gain the additional benefits such as increased citation counts and a greater presence, and called for SMU institutes to share data through these platforms to enhance their impact in the academic world.

Ruth Pagell, University Librarian acknowledged the initial champions of the Digital Library, primarily former President of SMU, Professor Howard Hunter who had been involved in libraries and digital libraries before he ever came to SMU and former Provost and Vice President Tan Chin Tiong. As the project was a cross-departmental effort involving the Library, Integrated IT Services (IITS), Office of Research and Office of Legal and General Affairs, she thanked their representatives as well as the Institutional Repository Advisory Committee.

Paolina Martin, Assistant Director of the Institutional Repository, commented on the growing trend of publishers allowing versions of articles to be placed in institutional repositories. SMU has instituted in its Intellectual Property policy, a license-back use of faculty works, and a policy where postgraduate theses and dissertations are to be either made open access or open access with an embargo period.  She also shared highlights of InK including the Faculty Gallery and image collections, both of which are new collections to the repository. To close the event, guests were presented with a quill ballpen as a symbolic reminder to put their research in InK.

Contributed by Yeo Pin Pin & Paolina Martin