NEWS

ISU staffer champions free digital library of research

MacKenzie Elmer
melmer@dmreg.com

AMES, Ia. – The artistic boy from Honolulu never dreamed he'd one day build a massive online network in the middle of Iowa, allowing millions of people around the globe to freely access research.

Harrison Inefuku, 30, was hired by Iowa State University in 2012 to digitize thousands of hard-copy scholarly works and sort them in what's called a digital repository. That's a fancy term for a free digital library.

Inefuku was recommended as one of the Register's 15 People to Watch in 2015 by Karen Lawson, associate professor and associate dean, collections and technical services, of the Iowa State University Library.

In her nomination letter, Lawson notes that "workers at public institutions are often unsung," and describes Inefuku "as the face and voice for open access to public research for all of us."

ISU research has racked up almost 2.5 million downloads already. According to the repository's Google Analytics, someone based in almost every country has downloaded something from the ISU repository.

"It's really empowering people anywhere with an Internet connection to get access to research we're doing here on campus," Inefuku said.

People in Iran, for instance, aren't allowed to purchase subscriptions to U.S. journals for political reasons, Inefuku said. But they can access ISU's research through the repository.

A world map on the repository website shows who's reading what in real time: Someone in Haifa, Israel, was reading a graduate thesis on data-streaming algorithms for rapid cyberattack detection one day earlier this month. Minutes later, someone in Mountain View, Calif., downloaded a research paper about the development and use of bib overalls in the United States between 1856 and 1945.

In case you're wondering, the author never did uncover the origin of the overalls, but many believe machinists attached their aprons to their pants to protect themselves in early 1900s factories.

Costs for academic journal subscriptions are rising, and it's becoming more expensive for university libraries to keep up. It can cost $30 to $50 to access just one article from an academic journal, Inefuku said. But no more.

"We work for the people of the state. And one of the land grant wishes is to take knowledge and share it ... which is a lot of what the repository is doing," Inefuku said.

Movement builds to expand free access

Inefuku got his first taste of archival work during the summer of 2008 at Punahou School in Honolulu, a K-12 school that was once attended by then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. During the contentious election, Inefuku investigated a copyright debacle where one news agency had been selling a yearbook photo of Obama for which the agency didn't own the rights.

"It was up to me to try and figure out if we had any records I could point to," Inefuku said. "I found a paper that the lawyers construed to figure out if we held copyright to those photos."

Inefuku didn't want to become a librarian at first.

He spent his undergraduate years studying black female artists such as Kara Walker, who creates grotesque, silhouetted sexual imagery.

"Their work really challenged conceptions of the dominant culture," Inefuku said.

Through the repository, Inefuku and ISU are challenging a culture of strict copyright law in the U.S. They're part of the open-access movement, working to make taxpayer-funded research available to the public for free.

Many countries in Western Europe have already embraced the concept. Spain, for instance, started its first national repository, called "RECOLECTA," in 2007. The U.S. government is playing catch-up.

In 2013, the Obama administration directed federally funded agencies to publish their research for free in a digital format within one year of initial publication.

John Holdren, director of the U.S. Office of Science and Technology, wrote in a 2013 memo to agency heads that scientific research "catalyzes innovative breakthroughs that drive our economy. The results of that research become the grist for new insights and are assets for progress in areas such as health, energy, the environment, agriculture, and national security."

A spokesman from the office said last week that the agencies have more than 20 open-access plans in the works, waiting to be finalized. Soon, data sets and scientific findings will be at fingertips around the world.

Making the pitch for more student work

Inefuku's next step is to encourage more undergraduate and graduate students to submit their work to the repository.

Ben Sloan, who graduated last year with a master's in mechanical engineering from ISU, said it took a strong pitch to persuade him.

"(Inefuku) needed to sell it to me. He said it was a way to showcase my research and not have it behind a paywall, so it could be shared with anyone," Sloan said.

Sloan wrote a profile for the repository, a kind of resume, next to his published work. He attached a URL for that profile to his LinkedIn account to help build his name recognition.

Sloan now runs a startup company called AgSolver with other ISU grads.

The company helps farmers comply with Department of Natural Resources regulations and manage their yields and profits.

Sloan still gets a monthly digest from the repository, showing how many people are downloading his research.

"Even with a library or search engine … it's still a struggle to find a researcher's full body of work on a topic," Sloan said. "You really appreciate the work (Inefuku does)."

Harrison Inefuku

LIVES: Ames

EDUCATION: Bachelor's degrees, fine arts (graphic design) and arts (visual culture), University of the Pacific, 2007; master's degrees, archival studies and library and information studies, University of British Columbia, 2011.

CAREER: Digital repository coordinator, Iowa State University, 2012-present; graduate research assistant, University of British Columbia, 2009-11; library technician, Punahou School, 2008.

15 PEOPLE TO WATCH IN 2015

These are central Iowans in business, arts, nonprofits, civic activism and nonelected government positions who are expected to make a difference in their fields of endeavor in 2015. Readers were invited to submit nominations. Selections were made by Des Moines Register editors and reporters. Look for profiles daily through Jan. 4.

Earlier profiles: With this story at DesMoinesRegister.com/PeopletoWatch, see profiles of Greg Edwards,president and CEO of the Greater Des Moines Convention & Visitors Bureau; Gilbert Vicario, senior curator at the Des Moines Art Center; Des Moines Police Officer Kelly Drane; developer Richard Hurd; Marvin DeJear Jr., director of the Evelyn K. Davis Center for Working Families; Jennie Smith, owner of Butcher Crick Farms and a sales manager at Kemin Industries; Stephanie Jenks, one of the world's top young triathletes; and Nate Noble, a pediatrician who specializes in treating children with developmental disorders.

Coming Tuesday: Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa.