Bringing an Institutional Repository to the Ball State
University Community
Cardinal Scholar (CS)
Bradley Faust, Assistant Dean LITS
University Libraries

Vision: The Ball State University Cardinal Scholar institutional repository (IR) system provides an online destination for archiving, preserving and storing intellectual property created by faculty and others at
Ball State University. Cardinal Scholar promotes Ball
State University's intellectual work to a worldwide audience and advances open scholarly communication.

 IR systems investigation and determination
 Our decision to use EPrints 3 - why?
 Implementation issues with EPrints 3
 Local customization of EPrints 3
 How is Cardinal Scholar doing today?

 Comparison of IR systems available
 Consideration of CONTENTdm as possible solution
 Lack of open deposit process
 Collection based organization of assets
 Why were other IR systems/solutions not selected?
 License fees
 Technical issues
 Functionality

 System Considerations
 EPrints written in Perl
 Apache web server, mySQL components
 Accessible code
 Active development and user communities
 Cost Considerations
 Open Source – no initial license fee
 Functional Considerations

 Successful operation of EPrints 3 on Fedora Core platform for several months
 Successful user experiences testing EPrints 3
 Successful installation and operation of a EPrints 3 beta version on a Windows based test server
 Successful customization of EPrints 3 system on
Windows
 Successful installation and operation of a EPrints 3 development version on a Windows based production server

 Built production Windows EPrints server - Nov 2007
 Testing
 Windows test system – 1 st week Dec 2007
 Windows production server – 2 nd -3 rd week Dec 2007
 Computer Center work
 Soft launch – no publicity (mid Dec 2007)
 Solicited user feedback and tweaked the system (mid
Dec - mid Jan)
 Began publicizing CS (Jan 2008)

 Assign system a domain name
 cardinalsholar.bsu.edu
 System security scan to evaluate server configuration
 Provide internet access to the CS server through the campus firewall
 Acquire SSL certificate for system ($100) – to protect logon credentials and improve overall security
 Review informational pages for consistency with university computing policy

 Informational pages – heavily modified
 Deposit process pages – heavily modified
 New accounts default to ‘editor’ status
 Added left hand navigation column
 Added Depositor Status field to deposit process
 Combined ‘deposit now’ and ‘make live’ buttons into one single function
 Added Browse by Division and by Creator feature
 Modified taskbar format and content

 Reorder required fields to display together on deposit pages
 Implement LDAP support to tie CS user accounts to campus domain accounts
 Further develop strategy for supporting small group access – plan to use shared user accounts initially
 Further develop functionality around local depositor status field
 Custom reports for OAI and other administrative work

 Repository has been running for 10 months
 Started with an empty repository/archive
 Manually moved selected digital assets from the test repository environment to CS
 Populated production CS with:
 University Archives documents
 other library and university documents
 Vacant Archivist slot slowed progress this year.
 Currently have over 150 digital assets in the CS system

 Connect to Cardinal Scholar
 cardinalscholar.bsu.edu
 Contact Information
 765 285-8032
 bfaust@bsu.edu
 Bradley Faust
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Assistant Dean for Library Information Technology Services
University Libraries
Ball State University
Muncie, IN 47306