WKU launches TopSCHOLAR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 2007
Contact: Cindy Troutman
270-745-4502

Western Kentucky University Launches State’s First
Institutional Repository

TopSCHOLAR™ – the Research and Creative Activity Database of Western Kentucky University was launched May 1, 2007. TopSCHOLAR™ is a centralized site that preserves the intellectual output of the University and will eventually include: graduate theses, honors theses, research papers, photographs, original music and drama, creative writing and more, authored by WKU students, faculty and staff.

TopSCHOLAR™ offers permanent access to works deposited by establishing a URL for each item. Works are indexed by Google, Google Scholar, and major scientific and open access systems for identifying published works and searchable by author, subject, title and keyword. Works deposited become instantly available to over 1 billion people worldwide.

Western Kentucky University joins Columbia University, Cornell University, Purdue University, University of Pennsylvania and other top institutions in the country in providing this digital database for scholarly works in many forms. Check it out at digitalcommons.wku.edu.

TopSCHOLAR™ is the first institutional repository in Kentucky. It offers indexing and searching using bepress (Berkeley Electronic Publishing) technology available through ProQuest/CSA’s Digital Commons platform and is made possible by support from WKU Libraries and Provost’s Initiatives for Excellence.

“We are very excited to offer TopSCHOLAR™ to our faculty, staff and students here at WKU. It presents a wonderful opportunity to showcase the talent of our University worldwide and serves as an outstanding example of ways in which WKU is striving to become a leading American university with International reach,” says Mike Binder, Dean of WKU Libraries.

For more information please contact Connie Foster, TopSCHOLAR™ Project Director at 270-745-6151 or by email at connie.foster@wku.edu.