The Digital Commons Network brings together free, full-text scholarly articles from hundreds of universities and colleges worldwide. Curated by university librarians and their supporting institutions, the Network includes a growing collection of peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, dissertations, working papers, conference proceedings, and other original scholarly work.
Type of Material:
Collection
Recommended Uses:
As homework, instructors can ask students to locate, select and compare relevant scholarly documents about specific discipline issues.
Technical Requirements:
Works across browsers. Requires pdf reader.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
The purpose of this site is to enable the user to locate full-text scholarly and peer-reviewed articles and conference proceedings.
Target Student Population:
College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Professional
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
basic ICT skills; know how information is broken down into subjects
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
This collection of scholarly works is contributed by academic institutions in open-access scholarship. Information is current and crosses all academic domains. Each document is self-contained, and thus varies in scope and treatment; linkage depends on the file's "tags." Likewise, the use of the collection is completely flexible. Content is appropriately cited and linked.
Concerns:
There is not a clear or complete demonstration of how to search this resource. There are no specific summaries, except for the abstracts that occur in individual sources indexed in the resource.
The use of the material depends on the universities' contributions and the site's tagging practice.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The collection exemplifies the information literacy framework of the Association of College and Research Libraries. Documents are linked according to searchable fields. The website provides a rich collection of scholarly material that can be incorporated into the curriculum: as instructor-chosen readings and as a vetted site that students can draw uponf or their own research efforts or use in practice involving ICT.
Concerns:
Each document is self-contained so does not necessarily build on prior concepts (except as literature reviews are incorporated) and reinforce concepts progressively (except within its own study).
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The layout is clear; the subject circle on the home page is fun, colorful and engaging. Instructions are minimal, as the purpose is clear and navigation is intuitive. The technical aspects of the site are robust, but the user needs little technology skill. Interactivity is insured in that the user searches and chooses self-determined sources.
Concerns:
The resource does not have clear instructions, nor is there a help feature. If one looks all the way to the bottom an accessible way to start searching the resource is available; however, individual documents are not necessarily ADA-compliant.
Creative Commons:
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