How to Browse or Search Research in Digital Commons @ CIIS

Digital Commons @ CIIS is the institutional repository of the California Institute of Integral Studies libraries, and you can find material in it in two main ways: type terms into the search box on the homepage, or browse by research unit, collection, discipline, or author. Use search when you already have a topic, title, or name in mind; use browsing when you want to see what a department or center has deposited. The repository notes that its content is "selected and deposited by the individual university departments and centers on campus," so coverage reflects what those units have chosen to submit rather than a complete record of everything produced at CIIS.

Search the repository

The homepage includes a search area with the prompt "Enter search terms" and a context selector offering two choices: in this repository or across all repositories.

1. Enter your terms in the search box.
2. Choose in this repository if you want results only from Digital Commons @ CIIS. Choose across all repositories if you want to search the broader Digital Commons Network, which includes other institutions' repositories.
3. Run the search and review the results.

The expected result is a results list drawn from the context you selected. A common pitfall is leaving the context on "across all repositories" and then wondering why results include papers from other universities — switch back to "in this repository" to limit the scope.

For more precise queries, the page links to Advanced Search, which lets you combine multiple search fields instead of relying on a single box. Use it when a plain keyword search returns too much or too little.

Browse by structure

If you don't have a specific search term, the repository organizes content so you can navigate it directly. The homepage's "Browse Research and Scholarship" area and the browse links let you move through:

• Research unit, center, or department — see what a specific campus unit has deposited.
• Collections — view the repository's grouped collections.
• Disciplines — browse by field. The repository is part of the Digital Commons Network, whose discipline list covers Architecture; Arts and Humanities; Business; Education; Engineering; Law; Life Sciences; Medicine and Health Sciences; Physical Sciences and Mathematics; and Social and Behavioral Sciences.
• Authors — find researchers by name, with an Author Corner and Author FAQ for author-related information.

This structure suits tasks like "show me recent work from a particular center" better than keyword search, because it relies on how the depositing unit organized its material.

See what's new or most viewed

The homepage's At a Glance section surfaces activity in the repository:

• Top 10 Downloads and All time download figures
• Recent Additions — the 20 most recent additions
• Activity by year
• Paper of the Day — a daily featured item (for example, Path to Utopia by Leila Kincaid appeared as the featured paper on the page captured)

Use these when you want a quick sense of the repository's current output rather than a targeted lookup.

Stay notified

The homepage offers Notify me via email or RSS, so you can follow new content without rechecking the site. This is useful if you're tracking a department's deposits over time. The exact subscription options are set on the notification page itself.

Quick reference

If you're looking for a specific paper and search comes up empty, try browsing the relevant department or collection instead — the repository's coverage depends on what each unit has deposited, so a paper may exist under a collection without matching your keywords.