CommonKnowledge – Collection Management Policy
About CommonKnowledge
CommonKnowledge is the online digital repository for the collected scholarship and creative works of Pacific University faculty, staff and students—and of their collaborators from around the world. These collections, organized and made accessible by the Pacific University Libraries, demonstrate Pacific’s commitment to the idea that shared information and academic collaboration are essential to the “progress of knowledge” in our global community.
The creation and maintenance of collections in CommonKnowledge are guided by these values:
- Increasing the impact of local knowledge. The intellectual inquiry and creative expression of Pacific’s faculty, staff, and students often result in work that has the potential to benefit people outside of the University.
- Promoting discovery, innovation, and interdisciplinary work. CommonKnowledge provides a way for members of the Pacific community to not only share with those within their disciplines but to also allow their work to be discovered and used in new and unanticipated ways.
- Preserving the availability of local knowledge. CommonKnowledge provides a persistent, long-term home for work created at Pacific University. By contributing their work to CommonKnowledge, students, faculty, and staff can be assured that their documents and files will be preserved and will be persistently available.
Relationship to other Digital Collections
The Pacific University Libraries maintains separate platforms for the curation of digital collections in different units. The nature and potential use of specific digital content will determine which unit should manage that content, and on which platform it should be housed:
- Digital content which falls within the collection parameters described in this policy will be housed and managed in CommonKnowledge.
- Digital content that is determined to possess predominantly historical value, or which is properly considered to constitute a primary archival resource, will be housed and managed by the University Archives.
- Administrative records and documents from Pacific University offices and academic units will generally be deemed to fall outside of the scope of the CommonKnowledge collections; such content will be considered for inclusion in the University Archives.
Scope of Policy
This policy describes the relationship between CommonKnowledge and other digital collections held by the Pacific University Libraries, outlines the collection parameters and priorities for CommonKnowledge, and provides guidelines for the administration of those collections. Specific processes and workflows for the administration of CommonKnowledge are not included in this document.
Although University Libraries-published journals and monographs are accessible through the CommonKnowledge platform, such works are not considered part of the repository collections. Policies governing the creation, editorial oversight, and production of University Libraries-published journals and monographs are outside the scope of this document.
Policy Revisions
This policy is reviewed by the Scholarly Communications & Research Services Librarian on an annual basis. Proposed policy revisions will be reviewed by the Local Collections and Publication Services team; final approval is provided by the Dean of University Libraries.
Acknowledgements
Some portions of content in this policy were adapted from: University of Utah IR collection policy; MIT Libraries DSpace policies, Coventry University, BioMed Central, IDEALS and OxyScholar.