Using Law School Institutional Repository to Promote Law Students' Scholarship

Law schools have been using institutional repositories as a showcase for law journals and faculty scholarly achievements for a long time, but law school institutional repositories fail to collect student scholarship regularly. Aspects of law school institutional repositories make no sense when failing to display student scholarship and when students and law schools are both beneficiaries of student scholarship collections. This session examines student scholarship in law school institutional repositories, analyzing its current status, advantages, and keys to success. The session demonstrates that law school institutional repositories underappreciate student scholarship, and the content of student repositories also lacks diversity. This approach impairs the positive impacts a student scholarship repository should have had on both student writing and employment, and law school admissions and alumni relations. The session highlights four key points for a successful student scholarship repository, including the quality of student scholarship, marketing, copyrights and FERPA compliance. The session will discuss, to maximize the positive effects of a law student scholarship repository, law schools must carefully design institutional repositories to expand their content and diversity.