Update to the thesis digitization policy posted to the thesis landing page

Based on a similar policy from the University of Florida, we have decided to undertake scanning and posting print theses in Digital Commons, subject to a takedown notice. We have added the following text to the introductory paragraphs on the Master theses landing page:
 The College at Brockport Drake Memorial Library respects the intellectual property rights of others and does not claim any copyright interest in these items. The items may be protected by copyright but are made available here under a claim of fair use (17 U.S.C. §107) for non-profit research and educational purposes. Users of these works have responsibility for determining copyright status prior to reusing, publishing or reproducing the items for purposes other than what is allowed by fair use or other copyright exemptions. Any reuse of the thesis in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder. Drake Memorial Library would like to invite individuals or organizations to contact the Digital Commons coordinator (digitalcommons@brockport.edu) with any questions or additional information they can provide.

Approved on 1/18/2017 by Bob Cushman, and on 1/25/2017 by Pam O'Sullivan - the text of her email is contained below:

I think the copyright statement you have is sound, and would cover us from any major legal actions. Since we are stating somewhere in our policies that we will take down immediately any thesis whose author contacts us and requests such action (I assume with the appropriate contact information),  I think we are adequately covered and further, that if someone with a copyright question or issue were referred to me, I would be able to make my case based on fair use in most cases.

When items are not showing up on their index page

Background and question:
We are currently interviewing cataloging librarian candidates, and one of their duties will be to help make Digital Commons items more discoverable (not that we have a problem with them being discovered now). In advance of her starting, I am trying to make sure the Master Cataloging spreadsheet that I have been keeping since the first thesis was uploaded is up to date. (I started with a download from the catalog of all print theses and have been updating it for born digital and digitized items, with the URLs). It's been interesting. I have discovered some that are on my spreadsheet that don't show up on the http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/theses/ pages, and a few that are in Digital Commons that I missed updating on the spreadsheet. I discovered a number of Counselor Education capstones that weren't showing up, but oddly, most were. I discovered the problem was that a group of them had "Counselor Education" for the department, and the ones that didn't show had "Department of Counselor Education". I did a batch revise, and I suspect that will fix the problem. But here is one that remains a mystery to me.


Here is my actual question:http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/ehd_theses/241/ not only fails to show up in the thesis index, but looking at the metadata page, there is no information showing 
http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/user_config.cgi?context=ehd_theses/241 and I can see that “Hide this article so that it’s not displayed on the site.” is checked. I’m not sure why it’s checked- there is probably some history that I don’t know about why it’s hidden- but that would explain why it’s not indexed. Hidden articles also don’t show up in usage reports, batch revise spreadsheets and can’t be collected.

(598) downloads since (10/23/2013). 
Any idea why this is?

DC Support answer:

I took a look at the configurations for this individual article here:


The download widget is not displaying because the article is hidden. If you unhide it and run an update, I think you’ll be happy to see that this paper has 598 downloads! (You can see this in preview: http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/cgi/siteview.cgi/ehd_theses/241)

Digital Commons annual refresh

Digital Commons annual refresh

Digital Commons has 3 level of hierarchy: Communities, collections, submissions.

It is Search Engine Optimized to make indexing by Google, etc. most effective. The two primary ways of doing that is by introductory text on the community and collection level, and metadata on the submission level.

As a new community or collection is built, introductory text needs to be added. Sometimes this gets overlooked, so once a year it’s good to review each community/collection to be sure the information exists and is up to date.

What we like to see on each page is some descriptive text, sometimes lifted directly from their college web page, links to the department where appropriate, and on the school/department levels the name of their Dean or Chair. These especially need to be refreshed annually, as they change over time. I keep a spreadsheet in the Digital Commons FC2 drive, which may need some updating, that lists all the communities and what we have. I will probably need to give you access to the drive, but for now I have it on a flash drive. One thing you might notice is that some of the collections have a Y in the other administrator column (C). These are administered by someone else, who should be adding the Intro text themselves. If you notice some without, though, please drop me a note.

LAP Lambert post for graduate students

I have received several emails asking about a “publisher” called LAP Lambert Academic who contact authors following the posting of their thesis in Digital Commons @Brockport.

The library community is aware of LAP Lambert and we consider it to be a predatory publisher. It is known for contacting new authors, particularly graduate/undergraduate student authors, and “offering” to publish their work in exchange for the copyright. They typically post the work on amazon or other sites and then print a copy on demand for anyone who orders it (usually almost no one).

You can also check this website, which keeps a list of these publishers: http://scholarlyoa.com/2012/12/06/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers-2013/

Please carefully consider any such “offers” like this before signing over your copyright to your intellectual property. If you ever receive an “offer” about which you are unsure, ask your thesis adviser or feel free to forward it to a librarian (or send it to digitalcommons@brockport.edu) and we will investigate the legitimacy of the company on your behalf.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks!

IITG MidYear Project Outcomes

Report Mid Year Project Outcomes

1)            Please consider the original timeline and deliverable targets. How is your project progressing compared with the original estimates?*

Our project called for hosting the ACRL day-long workshop, “Scholarly Communication: From Understanding to Engagement” in the fall and survey the library staff who do scholarly communication tasks in order to create a network, share best practices, and look for opportunities to collaborate on projects. We hosted the workshop on 9/30/2016, with 45 attendees. The next step will be to create the survey. We are currently right on track.

2)            How is spending progressing when compared with the original budget estimates? (You may also choose to detail issues regarding access to funds in the next three questions).*

We applied for $20,000 grant but only received $10,000. We have spent approximately $8200 of that amount on the conference.

3)            Please provide feedback regarding your experience with the project execution, in particular any issues or roadblocks you’ve encountered that may have been unexpected.*

It will be challenging to complete all the tasks we set out to do with only half the funding.

4)            What are your positive observations or pleasant surprises about your team’s interaction or project process that might would be helpful to other PI’s?*

Initial feedback from conference attendees include such comments as:

“these conversations refresh my enthusiasm for scholarly communications issues”

“I want to get our faculty up to speed and comfy with OA but my info dates back to 2006; I need(ed) a refresh”

“(I am) meeting others in my field, gaining new knowledge, learning new ways to help faculty and students”

“I feel less alone in this SCHOLCOMM world”

5)            Please describe any challenges you’ve encountered working with your project team that you’ve found solutions for that might be helpful to other PI’s.*

NYLA Scholarly Communications Unconference

Recap of the Scholarly Communication Unconference held at NYLA, 11/2/2016

1.    Peter D. Barvoets, SUNY Cobleskill
What I learned in getting almost 100 students to publish their presentations from the SUNY Undergraduate Research Conference (SURC 2016)

Main takeaway – sent email permissions 5 days before event, was at conference with laptop to capture presentations as students registered.

2.    Amy Schuler, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Providing research data management training for students
Main takeaway – summer research institute for undergraduates. Teaches data management. Great presentation.

3.    Jeremiah Hall, Bard College
Digital Commons Platform for a Small College IR
Main takeaway – Instructional resources, Oral Histories, Senior Projects

4.    Kim Myers, The College at Brockport
Starting a library publishing program http://digitalcommons.brockport.edu/lib_presentations/14/

5.    Pamela McLaughlin, Syracuse University Libraries
Sound Beat: an innovative media publishing initiative at Syracuse University Libraries
Main takeaway – 2 minute sound bites on a variety of subjects, musical and otherwise. Librarians work with one or two classes a semester to produce these. Posted on a Wordpress site, use only clips so it is used as transformative, avoid copyright police.

6.    Alice Carli, Sibley Music Library, Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester
A digitization project leading to publishing a large number of texts (including musical scores, in our instance) on our digital repository
Main takeaway – Multiyear project to digitize and conserve fragile scores in the SML. Those in public domain made public in the U of R’s IR+, those still in copyright put up with embargos, and made public only to U of R community.

7.    Jiebei Luo, Skidmore College
1. Creating an auto embargo reminder by utilizing Google Gadgets (Google form, Google Spreadsheet, formMule add-on script, Google calendar). 2. Building a live statistic Google site (iFrame, Google)
No takeaway here. Sophisticated use of Google Apps, but what doesn’t make sense is WHY? Why create work outside the IR (Digital Commons), when it is already provided?

Main conference takeaway –The above lightning rounds took place in the morning. The afternoon was devoted to a World Café, where the audience determined the topics. Of all the possible topics to discuss at this unconference, how to start and run an IR, engage with faculty, etc. was what most people wanted to talk about. Brockport is way ahead of the game there.

Links to presentations: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B5BZ7sQZ7CRUa3RqWWdabllYems

Ideas for supporting McNair Program

We added the McNair journal to Digital Commons about 4 years ago, and it has been downloaded over 900 times. The current iteration of the journal is a pdf of the print version with a little about the student and a one-page abstract about their research. I have found 3 other examples of McNair journals in institutional repositories, and they all have full papers attached. The reason may have to do with the cost to print the journal. If that is the case, then perhaps the print edition could continue as before, but the online edition could contain the papers, as well. It might be a useful way to demonstrate outcomes for the grant, too. 

Eastern Michigan: http://commons.emich.edu/mcnair/

Grand Valley State University: http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mcnair/

University of Pennsylvania: http://repository.upenn.edu/mcnair_scholars/

In speaking to Herma (cc: Barbara), I found out that "Summer Research students are required to write one abstract for conferences and one for the journal. In some cases, their mentor requires them to write a full paper as well, especially when their research is for credit. So your point is certainly thought provoking. And I'm so happy to see that people are downloading the journals so many times!!! That is good news. We'll be in touch, Herma :) ". 

A supplemental idea of housing their research posters in Digital Commons, in the soon-to-be created Poster Palooza collection was a definite hit, so we should follow up with them about that after the summer program.