Happy Birthday, SPARK!

On this day, in 2010, SPARK went live! Parkland College Library was one of the first community college libraries in the country to recognize the possibilities of an institutional repository with the mission of highlighting examples of excellence in Parkland students, faculty and staff scholarly and creative works.

The collection now holds nearly 1400 entries from over 450 student, faculty, and staff authors, and has seen over 100,000 downloads from around the globe. Take a look at this readership activity map to see how far SPARK reaches:

Every year, SPARK continues to grow with the addition of papers and projects by students participating in the A with Honors Program, selected posters from Natural Sciences Poster Sessions, podcasts from Anthropology 103’s Ethnographies of Parkland Student Life project, and prints, product designs, and digital media from the Graphic Design Student Exhibition.

As we look toward the next five years and beyond, we are always on the lookout for exciting new class projects and are actively encouraging faculty to submit open educational resources to the collection. SPARK's ability to accommodate and share your innovative ideas and creativity is limitless!  To find out more about how you can contribute to SPARK, and become part of a global collection of work, email us at spark@parkland.edu.