Cardinal Scholar Repository: Opening Ball State Scholarship to the World

Open access (OA) publishing is an emergent model of scholarly communication, which promotes the free, online availability of information. In February 2007, the University Libraries launched Cardinal Scholar (www.bsu.edu/cardinalscholar), Ball State’s institutional repository, establishing an OA digital archive for the deposit of intellectual capital developed at Ball State University and made available to a worldwide, Internet audience.

While Cardinal Scholar has experienced steady content growth, the adoption of an institution-wide Open Access Mandate could serve as a major catalyst in the expansion of the repository’s potential to be an integral element of the University’s research publishing distribution strategy and increase the reach and impact of the university’s scholarly product.

Open Access initiatives primarily respond to the growing scholarly communications crisis created by static resource budgets and exorbitant price increases imposed by journal publishers. Open Access mandates are a logical correlative of the OA journal model and have been implemented at several leading research universities including Stanford, Kansas, MIT, and Harvard. The implementation of an OA policy at Ball State University would offer our researchers a vehicle for increasing the discoverability and exposure of their publications through the Cardinal Scholar portal.

OA mandates do not impact an author’s ability to publish where s/he chooses, and the author retains all rights to his or her work. The OA policy serves as a pre-existing institutional license to make the article available to a worldwide audience and does not conflict with a publisher’s copyright requirements, protecting both the institution and the author from liability. Extant OA policies also include “opt out” provisions for faculty who may encounter extenuating requirements by a publisher.

Currently, discussions about a BSU Open Access mandate are occurring in appropriate University Senate committees. With the guidance of university administration and faculty stakeholders, the establishment of an OA policy at Ball State, coupled with the robust infrastructural capacity of Cardinal Scholar, represents an unprecedented opportunity for Ball State University to share the valuable intellectual capital of our distinguished faculty researchers, promoting scholarly exchange, collective innovation, and dynamic knowledge synthesis.

Through the aggregation and branding of our outstanding institutional contributions in scholarship and creative work through Cardinal Scholar, an Open Access mandate allows us to demonstrate and emphasize our distinctive and immersive model for teaching, learning, and collaboration, reaching well beyond the brick-and-mortar boundaries of our campus or the borders of our location to maximize the broader impact and inestimable potential and influence of Ball State University well into the future.

Preparing for Next Generation Digital

Digital is everywhere. It is in your ear bud, on your high definition screen. It buzzes through academia, transforming it on demand. Librarians, archivists, and other information professionals are virtually immersed in meeting the challenges and opportunities presented by the digital environment.

Although perhaps arguably, we could say that we have met the challenges of the first digital generation and can claim some successes. But that first generation is graying already. A new front is already forming. Next Generation Digital is coming fast.

The Ball State University Libraries have been proactive in facing the current generation of digital developments. Some of the University Libraries’ digital initiatives in this generation include:
· Development of more than 60,000 diverse digital assets for learning, teaching, and research in the Digital Media Repository
· Centralized access to digital resources through the Digital Commons
· Continuing development of Ball State University’s Cardinal Scholar, a project of the University Libraries, as part of the University’s research and publishing distribution strategies
· Developing and hosting highly attended and successful conferences and workshops on digital issues for information professionals
· Participating in professional conferences, presenting papers, and publishing articles to share and promote the Ball State University Libraries’ digital programs
· Providing an organizational structure and development of units and personnel to meet the developmental needs of a digital initiatives program

As we face the Next Generation Digital, the University Libraries’ digital initiatives are expected to grow and adapt to the changing environment. Already work has begun on exploration of a University Libraries’ presence in the virtual world of Second Life. Advances continue to be made in developing strategies for providing digital information and resources through new delivery devices. Discussions of digital scholarship, digital teaching, and digital learning are underway as Ball State’s Institutional Repository prepares to premiere in early December 2007 and as Ball State’s librarians contribute to new publications in this area. There is more to discuss and more to do in many areas.

For more information, contact John B. Straw, Ball State University Libraries’ Assistant Dean for Digital Initiatives and Special Collections, JStraw@bsu.edu, 765-285-5078.