The University of Dubuque was one of the first users of SharedShelf/JSTOR Forum due to a CIC grant we received 3 years ago. Our digital projects have evolved along the same curvature as SharedShelf/JSTOR Forum. We have gone from using it solely as a repository, a shelf so to speak, where we were storing backend data to a tool that professors use to actively showcase their student’s scholarship and to engage in a digital conversation with other users who use the Artstor Digital Library; in other words, we contribute to a forum. When we started utilizing JSTOR Forum/SharedShelf, we took advantage of the storage space and organization tools available and primarily used it as a repository for archival works. With our first attempt at a digital collection, we learned how to use SharedShelf in conjunction with other programs such as OHMS (Oral History Metadata Synchronizer), Omeka, and Drupal to create an interactive collection. Just as SharedShelf made changes and grew into JSTOR Forum, we are also growing and using JSTOR Forum in new ways. So much so that it is a part of our 2018-2019 Strategic Plan with Actions. We are working with professors to use JSTOR Forum in the classroom and to promote/open publish student scholarship. No longer are we just using it as a repository, but we are using it to showcase our student’s creativity and our faculty’s contributions to the field.
