Using innovative new media and digital technologies, CDRS sought to empower the Columbia research community with online tools and services to enable them to make the most of scholarly communication, collaboration, data sharing, and preservation.
Storing work in Academic Commons help researchers meet deposit, archiving, and dissemination stipulations for federal and private funding requirements, such as those by the National Institutes of Health or the National Science Foundation — and also provides participants with secure, long-term preservation for many digital file types.
Services offered by CDRS included advice on the digitization of print back issues; platform software hosting, updates, and enhancements; integration of interactive elements such as blogs and wikis; and copyright consulting.
One prize-winning project was Dangerous Citizens Online, a book by anthropology professor Neni Panourgiá developed jointly with Fordham University Press.
CDRS also supported research collaboration by managing a wiki platform called Wikischolars, hosted by Wikispaces.