By Jennifer Montminy

Continual improvement is simply a way of working for the ScholarSphere team. Since the University repository service was launched in the 2012, the team has continuously added new features, incorporated user feedback and worked to make the service easier and more effective for Penn State’s researchers.

ScholarSphere is a collaboration between the University Libraries and Penn State IT and gives all Penn State researchers—faculty, staff, and students—free access to a digital repository where they can preserve, manage, and share their scholarly work.

When uploading files, users are given the opportunity to keep their files private or share them with other Penn State users or the world. When users decide to share their work, the service provides them with persistent URLs for all of the files they upload, making it the perfect tool for researchers needing to link to their data when applying for a research grant or submitting an article for publication.

The repository also makes it easier for researchers from across campus or across the country to collaborate on work. When shared publically, work becomes searchable online, meaning that it is more accessible to other researchers investigating similar topics. It allows for collaboration through discovery and feedback, as well as through group work for Penn State users (for example the Penn State School of Nursing uses ScholarSphere to make collections of their data sets).

Additionally, the service is always adding new features that have been requested by users, meaning that if you try to do something on ScholarSphere one time and can’t, the chances are that the next time you visit the site, you just might be able to do that very thing. Needles to say, in many ways ScholarSphere has been an invaluable resource for the Penn State community.

However, on September 10, it got even better.

Incorporating the feedback from current users—both about the interface and about features that they would find useful—the ScholarSphere developers and service team released not just a new feature or two, but a brand new interface that they are calling ScholarSphere 2.0 that includes an enhanced user dashboard, a cleaner, more intuitive design, and improved site organization.

What’s New in ScholarSphere 2.0?

While there are many things to be excited about in the updated ScholarSphere interface, the biggest transformation is to the user dashboard. Once users log in they will be taken to a screen that looks like the one below that colorfully and cleanly displays their files, information, and actions they can take.

By clicking on the orange action buttons across the top, users can upload files, create collections, and view their work. Once on the View Files or Collections screen, users can move fluidly between the different fields, displaying and filtering their data accordingly.

In addition to the new look of the site, the update will also add features including:

• Responsive design: Upload, access, search for, and share files from your phone and tablet.

• Direct user dashboard: Instead of remaining on the homepage after logging in, you will be taken directly to your newly redesigned dashboard.

• Featured works and researcher: See the interesting work that other Penn State researchers have shared and see yourself featured on the ScholarSphere homepage.

• File analytics: Discover the reach of your research by seeing how many people are viewing and downloading the files you’ve shared.

• Box integration: In addition to uploading files from your computer or Dropbox, you can now upload files directly from your box.psu.edu account.

With the new interface it is easier than ever to manage your files from your dashboard or create and share collections of files that you’ve uploaded. Plus the ability to assign proxies to upload files for you makes it easier for you to collaborate with others in your lab, department, or anywhere else in the University.

Need help?

The ScholarSphere team worked hard to make the new interface as intuitive and as easy-to-use as possible, but as with all new things, it may take a little getting used to. Below are some resources to help you get started with the new interface.

Frequently Asked Questions and User Support:
https://scholarsphere.psu.edu/help/

Getting Started with ScholarSphere: Instructions for uploading files:
https://scholarsphere.psu.edu/getting-started.pdf

Getting Started with Collections: Instructions for creating Collections:
https://scholarsphere.psu.edu/collection.pdf

So whether you have 50 files uploaded to ScholarSphere or you are discovering it for the first time, the ScholarSphere team hopes that you find the new ScholarSphere experience both enjoyable and effective and that helps you share your work with Penn State and the world.