Ball State University’s Institutional Repository Promotes the University’s Intellectual Capital

Cardinal Scholar, Ball State University’s institutional repository, serves as a digital drop box for students, faculty, and staff to preserve their scholarly achievements. In keeping with the entrepreneurial spirit on which Ball State is founded, Cardinal Scholar also strives to highlight the intellectual capital generated by student and faculty researchers. By documenting the official and business-related output of Ball State administrators, the repository also serves an important collection development function by capturing the institutional history and memory of the University.

The addition of presentations, data sets, papers, compositions, performances, and exhibits from the campus community fosters a unique environment for idea exchange and publication distribution. Additionally, Cardinal Scholar creates a digital space for administrators to preserve and provide access to electronic records such as technical reports, documentation, meeting minutes, annual reports, and manuals.

Students and faculty benefit from Cardinal Scholar in the following ways:

• The repository provides a persistent URL to deposited items, providing a stable link for everything from electronic portfolios to Web browser book marks.
• Cardinal Scholar is an easy way for depositors to document and historicize their intellectual or administrative contributions to Ball State University in a secure electronic environment that is committed to a digital preservation schedule.
• As Ball State University’s institutional repository is indexed by Google and other search engines, researchers outside of the University are able to find and access materials deposited in Cardinal Scholar.

Premiering in January 2008, Cardinal Scholar now contains over 150 deposits. To promote and increase the use of Cardinal Scholar, the University Libraries are embarking on a campaign to promote the institutional repository to student groups, administrators, and faculty around campus. The University Libraries offer one-on-one and group instruction sessions and consultations for Cardinal Scholar.

To learn more, contact Carolyn F. Runyon, Archivist for Digital Development and University Records, CFRunyon@bsu.edu, 765-285-5078.