ISU staffer champions free digital library of research

"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 ..."