A Peek into CEDAR

What if you were able to publish your school projects or other works online for the world to see?

Think about it for a minute. Any piece of your work, all in one place. You could access your work easily, your grandma could finally read the paper you told her about… Heck, even people you’ve never met from around the world could read your work!

Seems too be good to be true, huh?

Wrong.

The Western Libraries CEDAR (Contributing to Education through Digital Access to Research) program is an institutional repository available to anyone with internet access. In other words, CEDAR is the place to go.

“The idea is to create a service that allows students to get works out and highlights what’s happening at Western,” Scholarly Communication Librarian Jenny Oleen said. “Anyone can view materials published through CEDAR without paying.”

CEDAR is used in a variety of different ways, including for conferences and events, publishing journals and peer-reviewed series, as well as publishing masters theses and graduate research. The tool is also used for Western departments, academic programs and centers.

CEDAR is a simple option for previous and current students to store work they may want to use for resumes and CVs. The program is part of a movement to provide open access to scholarship and creative works across the internet, Western’s CEDAR Manager Kim Marsicek said.

According to Marsicek, The goal of CEDAR is to honor and preserve the work of Western student scholars to the best of our abilities.

Students, faculty and staff are able to publish their works through CEDAR, which is used by internet users around the world.

Marsicek encourages people to publish on CEDAR: “One of our goals is to increase the number of faculty published in CEDAR. We encourage everyone to email us.”

CEDAR is also used for Scholars Week, Western’s annual celebration of student work made in collaboration with faculty members.

“We’re extremely flexible. If someone has an idea, we’d love to work with them to make it a reality,” Marsicek said.

To learn more about Western’s CEDAR program, visit cedar.wwu.edu, contact Oleen at (360)650-2613 or Jenny.Oleen@wwu.edu; or contact Marsicek at (360)650-7776 or Kim.Marsicek@wwu.edu.