A Square Peg in a Round Hole? The MARCH Thesis and the Institutional Repository

Abstract

While institutional repositories have changed the landscape of academic publishing and scholarly communication in most disciplines, the creative work of architecture and art and design students and faculty has been left behind. Recent studies sponsored by the National Digital Stewardship Residency (NDSR) Art Information program explore the issue of the MFA thesis as an object for submission to an institutional repository. This article opens the conversation to include the MARCH thesis project. The essay recounts the process of gathering information about current practices and proposes next steps to address the need for best practices, if not standards, for the inclusion of MARCH thesis work in institutional repositories. [The following article is an expansion of discussion sessions organized at the ARLIS/NA conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah, in March 2019, and at the Association of Architecture School Librarians conference held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in March 2019.]