The McQuade Library’s digital archive (hereafter called Merrimack ScholarWorks) is a system for collecting, distributing, managing, publishing, and preserving digital (electronic) information created by Merrimack College faculty, students, and staff.

Merrimack ScholarWorks is a collaboration among Merrimack librarians, faculty, and administrators. It includes the intellectual output of Merrimack College faculty and students, including both research and teaching/learning materials. It also contains materials that document the evolution of the College’s programs, activities, and policies.

It is important that all stakeholders understand and agree to the policies, guidelines and procedures required to make Merrimack ScholarWorks a success. The following policy statements may be developed and modified over time.

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A community is a Merrimack unit, group, or individual that contributes digital material to ScholarWorks. Examples of communities include academic or administrative departments, research centers and student groups. Each community may assign a contact person to work with ScholarWorks staff.

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Communities and their members agree to:

• Work with Library staff to define their community and collections
• Develop an internal submission process for the community or authorize Library staff to submit on the community’s behalf
• Provide organization and description of submitted content as needed
• With assistance from Library staff, verify that submission to Merrimack ScholarWorks is allowed, when copyright holder is other than the submitter(s) or Merrimack College
• Assure materials proposed for submission comply with local, state, and federal content and privacy laws, and with the College’s Appropriate Use Policy
• Observe all policies relevant to Merrimack ScholarWorks
• Notify Merrimack ScholarWorks at of organizational changes in the unit that affect submissions
• Reply to annual call for updating community information.

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Communities retain the right to:

• Decide who may submit content on behalf of their community
• Receive a digital copy of submitted content upon request
• Request to remove objects (see section 8)
• Propose restructuring of communities, sub-communities, or collections
• Request to limit access via password to specific individuals within the Merrimack to Merrimack ScholarWorks content at the collection level, subject to the approval of the McQuade Library staff

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McQuade Library, Merrimack College undertake to:

• Provide guidance or assistance in establishing new communities and collections, and in submitting objects to Merrimack ScholarWorks
• Retain and maintain access to content submitted to Merrimack ScholarWorks
• Preserve content, in collaboration with the Merrimack ScholarWorks software provider, Bepress
• Notify communities of changes to object, e.g. migration from obsolete formats

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McQuade Library, Merrimack College retains the right to:

• Redistribute, amend, or copyright metadata for objects in Merrimack ScholarWorks
• Refuse content not within the scope of Merrimack ScholarWorks (see Merrimack ScholarWorks Content Policies below)
• Remove content under appropriate circumstances
• Renegotiate the terms of participation with communities
• Migrate objects as necessary to preserve integrity of information
• Examine Merrimack ScholarWorks system logs and records

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A. The material (object) submitted to Merrimack ScholarWorks must be produced, submitted or sponsored by Merrimack College faculty, staff, or students.

B. Objects must be scholarly, research-oriented, pedagogical, or must illuminate the history of Merrimack College.

C. Objects must have enduring value.

D. Objects must be in digital format, complete, and ready for dissemination.

E. The author/owner grants Merrimack College the right to preserve and disseminate the objects via Merrimack ScholarWorks.

F. If an object is part of a series, other objects in that series should also be contributed, so Merrimack ScholarWorks can offer as complete a set as possible.

G. Objects and object descriptions must comply with local, state and federal content and privacy laws as they may apply, and with the Merrimack College Appropriate Use and all other College policies.

H. Object content not permitted for submission/publication to Merrimack ScholarWorks:

In addition to material types not permitted under the College Appropriate Use Policy, objects with the following content are not permitted to be submitted or posted to the repository:

• FERPA-protected information
• HIPAA-regulated information (protected health information), including any information related to the past, present or future physical or mental health of an individual, except only if the individual has authorized release of their information in writing, and such release is in the hands of the publisher
• Content barred by law or regulation from publication
• Intellectual property for which the submitter does not have permission to submit and distribute
• Non-public personally identifiable financial information of any kind; including, but not limited to, social security numbers, credit/debit card numbers, account numbers, account balances, except only where such records pre-exist as legitimate publicly accessible records outside the College
• Photographic depictions of individuals in areas where a reasonable expectation of privacy exists, except only if all individuals depicted have given written consent to publication of their image
• Unpublished telephone numbers and/or private residential addresses, except only if consent for publication has first been obtained from the owner of the number and/or residential address
• Records protected by state privacy laws. Please note that privacy laws vary by state, and protect their residents even when they are out of state.

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McQuade Library recognizes that occasionally it may be necessary to remove objects from Merrimack ScholarWorks. Under some circumstances, objects will be removed from view, but to avoid loss of the historical record, all such transactions will be traced in an administrator’s note in Digital Commons. The content of the note should be one of the following:

“Removed from view at McQuade Library, Merrimack College discretion [day/month/year]”

“Removed from view by legal order [day/month/year]”

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The Library’s goal is to preserve and provide long-term access to the content of the material stored in Merrimack ScholarWorks. Our intent is to accept and guarantee permanent access to all types of digital materials. It is recommended that submitters review the Policy on Format Support and Preservation before submitting their work to Merrimack ScholarWorks.

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Merrimack ScholarWorks uses Qualified Dublin Core for its descriptive metadata. Qualified Dublin Core comprises the core fifteen (15) simple elements and an enrichment of these fifteen (15) that permits the collection and storage of richer data describing digital objects.

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To successfully submit a digital object to Merrimack Scholarworks, the submitter is required to fill in the title, at least one keyword or phrase, and the publication year. Other metadata may be added as desired.

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The Authorizing Individual (the rights holder or the representative of the rights holder of a specific digital object) bears full responsibility for any and all direct, indirect and consequential losses arising from their acts of publication. The College shall have no liability to any person or entity for any losses incurred as a result of submission, nor from losses sustained as a result of failure of the College to accept, publish or maintain a submission.

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Merrimack ScholarWorks functions within Merrimack College and is governed by College policies including but not limited to the its’ appropriate use policies and all applicable local, state and federal laws. Access granted by virtue of Merrimack ScholarWorks does not confer rights of any kind. The College reserves the right to amend, change or terminate the repository service at any time, with or without notice. The College retains the right to take any and all actions with respect to its institutional repository, Merrimack ScholarWorks in its sole discretion. The decision of the College in appeals regarding rejected materials is final.

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