This is a case study about the implementation of an institutional repository (IR) at Marshall University. Libraries have always collected information from a worldwide marketplace and have disseminated these resources locally. The IR has created a new function for the library by making it practical to acquire locally developed resources and to disseminate them freely worldwide. This has altered the traditional role of librarians and suggests a broader set of implications for the future usefulness and relevancy of the IR as doors open to new partnerships that will strengthen the university and the library’s place within it.