Online repository makes local research available to all

"Open Access Week will be celebrated throughout the world from Monday through Oct. 27, and Booth Library on the Eastern Illinois University campus is observing the global event by highlighting its institutional online repository, The Keep.  Proponents of open access believe it has the potential to increase the exposure and use of published research and enhance the ability to conduct research.  EIU has supported the move toward open access by implementing The Keep, the university’s institutional repository. The Keep, accessible through the Booth Library website at http://thekeep.eiu.edu, was implemented in September 2011 to provide digital access to scholarly research and local archival materials.

The Keep provides free and open access to the scholarship of EIU faculty, staff and students, as well as to important documents of EIU history. These materials include master’s theses, faculty research and local archives such as copies of The Warbler yearbook and materials from theatre arts productions.  In the two years since The Keep was implemented, more than 27,000 documents have been added to the database, and those documents have been downloaded more than 123,000 times, making it the second largest repository in Illinois and among the largest in the Midwest.  Documents have been accessed from throughout the United States and 133 countries.  For more information about Open Access Week or The Keep, contact Todd Bruns, institutional repository librarian, at 581-8381 or email thekeep@eiu.edu."