Category Archives: Digital Collections

Online digital repository reaches new milestone, thousands of items just clicks away

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In September our online digital repository reached a new milestone, with over 100,000 downloads in a single month.  Launched in 2014, the repository contains over 27,000 items: from single photographs to audio recordings to full-length books and dissertations.  In September researchers from 1800 institutions in 185 countries downloaded materials.

There is a wealth of information here.  What can you discover?

This screen shot is not clickable, so here are the direct links. Each link opens in a new window:

The most popular papers in September were:
Church Directory and List of Preachers of Churches of Christ (6613 downloads)
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/crs_books/416
The Effect of Anxiety and Depression on College Students’ Academic Performance: Exploring Social Support as a Moderator (2669 downloads)
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/51
A Qualitative Case Study Examining Parental Involvement and Parent-School Partnership Strategies in a Middle School: Perspectives of Parents, Teachers, and Administrators (931 downloads)
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/332

The most popular publications in September were:
Everett Ferguson Photo Collection (27432 downloads)
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/ferguson_photos
Lectureship and Summit Audio Collection (15888 downloads)
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/sumlec_audio
Electronic Theses and Dissertations (15674 downloads)
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd

Christian Chronicle archives available online

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In 2020 the Texas State Library & Archives Commission (TSLAC) awarded funding to Brown Library Special Collections and Archives under its TexTreasures Grant program.  The $25,000 grant facilitated digitization of the full print run of the Christian Chronicle, a major, global newspaper serving Churches of Christ since 1943.

This digital repository of The Christian Chronicle is the result of a partnership among Special Collections and Archives, Abilene Christian University (Abilene, TX), The Christian Chronicle, Oklahoma Christian University (Edmond, OK), Oklahoma Historical Society (Oklahoma City, OK), and University of North Texas (Denton, TX), and is available here:

The Chronicle featured this online collection in a story in the current issue:

Catching up on 80 years of Christian news

From the first issue, The Chronicle was globally aware. Each issue since has carried news and information about Churches of Christ from around the world. It is rich in information like no other source.  We will be able to write better history because this material is available.

 

Primary sources and scholarship are just clicks away

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Each month I receive a brief email summary of the prior month’s download statistics on our online digital repository.  The global reach of the web facilitates access to primary sources and generative scholarship on a scale of volume and accessibility that was almost beyond our comprehension just a few ago.

Each month, without fail, I am amazed to see what the most popular items and publication are.  Month after month, with few exceptions, our Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD’s) and Stone-Campbell Books take the top spots by a fair margin.  Primary sources and generative scholarship, downloaded by the tens of thousands by readers in 179 countries.

Seeing the stats never gets old.  Neither does pondering what those usage statistics might mean.  What items from our past will someone find next that will mark a turning point in their research project? What article or piece of scholarship will someone download that result in new or better understanding?

This screen shot is not clickable, so here are the direct links:

The most popular papers were:
Church Directory and List of Preachers of Churches of Christ (4940 downloads)
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/crs_books/416
The Effect of Anxiety and Depression on College Students’ Academic Performance: Exploring Social Support as a Moderator (2980 downloads)
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/51
The Ethical Considerations of Physician-assisted Suicide (590 downloads)
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/dialogue/vol4/iss1/12

The most popular publications were:
Electronic Theses and Dissertations (11441 downloads)
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd
Stone-Campbell Books (7657 downloads)
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/crs_books
Dialogue & Nexus (1363 downloads)
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/dialogue