UR Scholarship Repository adds two new resources for public access

Two new publications, “VA Engage Journal” and “Poverty in Metropolitan Richmond” are now live and available for public access through the University of Richmond’s Scholarship Repository. Launched in summer 2013, the respository serves as a digital archive of student and faculty research, as well as a publishing platform.

“VA Engage Journal” is a forum for undergraduate, professional and graduate students to publish research on community engagement practices. The journal is published once annually and all students at a two- or four-year college or university in Virginia are eligible to submit an article.

“Articles in the journal include students’ critical reflections on experiences in community engagement, reviews of current literature and traditional research on current practices,” said Sylvia Gale, associate director of the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement (CCE).

“Poverty in Metropolitan Richmond” is a comprehensive data analysis of poverty trends in the greater Richmond area. John Moeser, senior fellow in the CCE, spent ten years analyzing U.S. census data to create the report designed to inform the public about the growth of impoverishment and its effect on urban life.

“This project inspired the formation of the Mayor’s Anti-Poverty Commission, which in turn led to the creation of the Maggie L. Walker Office of Community Wealth Building, charged with overseeing implementation plans for recommendations from the commission’s report” said Moeser.

These publications were both results of partnerships between the CCE and Boatwright Memorial Library.

“These are examples of the great collaborations that take place on campus to share various forms of scholarship” said Lucretia McCulley, head of scholarly communications, University Libraries.

Publishing in the repository is open to students, faculty and staff. More than 6,000 materials are available, and to date, those have been downloaded nearly 350,000 times.

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