Access to lectures and academic papers from the Benjamin F. Shambaugh Conference is now available at http://ir.uiowa.edu/shambaugh/. The conferences, sponsored by the Department of Political Science of the University of Iowa, are supported by funds in memory of Professor Benjamin F. Shambaugh, who headed the department from its founding in 1900 to his death in 1940.

“In preparing to organize the most recent Shambaugh conference, in October 2011, I realized that our department lacked any way to broadcast the cumulative impact of the Shambaugh conferences—the variety of topics addressed and the quality of the resulting publications,” said Political Science Prof. Bill Reisinger. “I also knew that the quality of my conference would be enhanced with a web-based location for conference information and the papers.”

Reisinger partnered with The Libraries to develop the site that allows users to manage various phases of the a conference process from proposal submissions and agenda posting to paper and presentation archiving. All proceedings managed on this platform are accessible through Iowa Research Online (IRO), a dynamic archive of the research produced by faculty, researchers, and students, from published articles in peer-reviewed journals to presentations, theses, dissertations, and unpublished papers.

The conference is among a growing stable of local conferences using the IRO conference management platform can accommodate one-time-only and repeat scholarly events, large multi-track events and single session symposia, new content as well as content from past events. This service is part of a larger one at the Libraries to help advance scholarly publishing.

For more information about the service please visit Digital Research & Publishing’s conference page or contact lib-ir@uiowa.edu.

— Nicole Saylor
Head, Digital Research & Publishing