Elizabeth Altman (left) and Andrew Weiss, staff CSUN’s ScholarWorks project. Photo by Lee Choo.

If you’ve authored a paper or created a video, podcast or tutorial and want to share it with the world, California State University, Northridge’s ScholarWorks project is a vehicle for faculty, staff and students to store and provide access to their digital properties.

The ScholarWorks project is an open-access institutional repository administered by staff at the Oviatt Library. The software captures, organizes, preserves and disseminates the intellectual output of members of the CSUN community. The project is part of a systemwide program, first launched by the CSU Chancellor’s office in 2007.

“ScholarWorks provides stable links, ensures long-term digital preservation of work and contributes to the ideals of open-access publishing,” said digital services librarian Andrew Weiss. “It also showcases the depth and breadth of scholarship and academic achievement of everyone at CSUN.”

This long-term preservation is made possible by ScholarWorks’ distinctive feature that attributes a permanent online location, also known as a “handle,” to each submission.

“This (handle) will never change, and students, faculty and staff will be able to provide links to their work that will never break,” said Weiss. “It will allow faculty, staff and students to permanently cite their theses, papers or other works on their resumes or CVs.”

Weiss said ScholarWorks provides an invaluable solution to the Internet’s permanence problem including “broken links.”

ScholarWorks offers a “one-click” discovery of the research achievements of individual faculty, a department, a college or subject area. The system is also easy to use. Library staff will:

• Create an online author section
• Contact publishers and clear copyright permission
• Upload legal copies of the authors work
• Provide Curriculum Vitae mining, which extracts citations from CVs at no cost

“Submitting work can be done individually by any CSUN-related faculty, staff and students,” said Weiss. “Or they can request the Oviatt Library ScholarWorks staff to submit on their behalf.”

Tutorials, demonstrations and workshops on how to use the ScholarWorks program are available for faculty and staff. For more information visit the ScholarWorks website or contact Elizabeth Altman, (818) 677-2863.

Faculty and Staff News, Oviatt Library, Research, ScholarWorks, Students