Furthering a WKU Legacy

Connie Foster worked at WKU for 41 years, serving as the dean of libraries from April 2011 to June 2017. 

Before she was appointed dean, Foster worked part and full-time in serials and electronic resources and as department head of Library Technical Services. As dean, Foster administered three departments, over 30 faculty and an equal number of staff and students. 

Although she didn’t begin her career in the libraries, she felt drawn to her career because of the people. 

“I just got drawn into a professional culture and work setting that I enjoyed and that involved interacting with people in an academic environment,” Foster said. 

Along with her work in the libraries, Foster spent 10 years working as an editor for a social science journal. From 2001-2011, she edited Serials Review, an Elsevier social sciences journal. This opportunity gave her significant professional experience in editing a scholarly journal and exploring publishing models. 

Foster considers her biggest accomplishment while working in the libraries to be her implementation of TopSCHOLAR®, the research and creative activity database for WKU. Created in 2007, TopSCHOLAR® is an open access platform for articles, theses, dissertations, and presentations by WKU faculty, staff and students. TopSCHOLAR® has reached close to three million downloads from all over the world since its launch 10 years ago.  

Foster has served as chair of the Continuing Resources Section of the American Library Association (ALA) and a past president of NASIG (North American Serials Interest Group). She is also a lifetime member of The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and a member of the Cherry Society and Cupola Society at WKU for 30 years of continuing giving. 

To honor the work she has done at WKU and to further her legacy within the libraries, friends, colleagues, and the WKU Library Advisory Council created a scholarship endowment in her name to ensure students will have scholarship funds perpetually.Through the generosity of WKU Friends of the Libraries, the endowment continues to grow and offers additional aid to our students. If you would like to donate to help increase scholarship funds to the students, click on the red donate button. Thank you for your support!