The U of T Scarborough Library’s Digital Collections are a branch of the library’s collections managed by the Digital Scholarship Unit (DSU) with the the goals of facilitating:
- discovery of campus and community outputs through relevant access points.
- storytelling about the campus scholarly and cultural record.
- development and maintenance of intellectual freedom through access to multiple expressions of knowledge and intellectual activity.
Descriptive practices
The U of T Scarborough Library’s constantly evolving descriptive practices are informed both by the wider world of relevant standards, and an awareness that descriptive practices are not neutral. We work in consultation and partnership with experts and draw from multiple sources to produce the richest possible metadata to serve the widest possible audience. Digital objects are associated with identifiers/URLs that uniquely identify items and promise greater persistence over time.
Additional information is available in our public Metadata Dictionary.
Selection Criteria
In addition to considering our goals, the other factors are considered when developing collections projects:
✅ Relevance to U of T Scarborough faculty and eastern-GTA communities.
✅ Access to the communities represented in the collection and public.
✅ Use and Re-use potential for research and pedagogy.
✅ Richness of partnerships enhanced through the collection development process (see also: UTSC's Partnership Development Framework)
✅ Opportunities for emerging professionals to participate.
✅ Diversity of existing collections and potential to improve variety of viewpoints and materials.
✅ Innovation in practice.
🅧 Potential for harm to private individuals
🅧 Violation of standards for privacy
🅧 Licensing and consent context is obscure.
🅧 Relevance for documenting or serving the U of T Scarborough community is unclear.
🅧 Cost is unsustainable or unnecessarily duplicates effort happening elsewhere.
Licensing & Ethics Concerns
Partners working with or donating materials to the digital collections of the U of T Scarborough Library are asked to apply a Creative Commons License to materials accessioned by the library, or to grant a non-exclusive license to the U of T Scarborough Library. This license permits the library to reproduce, translate, and distribute the materials worldwide in print and electronic format and in any medium in perpetuity, and to make copies for the purposes of preservation.
When providing items to the digital collections, you must represent that the materials donated are either your original work, or that you have the right to grant this license (having obtained the unrestricted permission of the copyright holder).
When materials are donated that were developed under research ethics protocols, we ask for verification that the original application described the creation of a collection and that informed consent, and any relevant copyright, was obtained at the time the materials were collected. If the creation of a collection was not considered as part of the protocol, we ask that informed consent and copyright be obtained prior to the donation to the U of T Scarborough Library. Librarians are happy to consult on appropriate language and workflows, but are not legal experts and do not represent the U of T Research Ethics Boards.
The U of T Scarborough Library respects the intellectual property and consent of others. If you are concerned that you have found material in our collections for which you have not given permission or if you wish to withdraw permission, please contact us at the U of T Scarborough Library using the email address dsu.utsc@utoronto.ca or the address on the bottom of our website homepage, stating the following:
- Your contact information (including email address and phone)
- Exact URL where you found the material
- Details that describe the material (name, specifications, characteristics, etc.)
- The reason why you would like content removed or altered, with any pertinent documentation
Upon receipt of your objection, the U of T Scarborough Library will:
- Promptly acknowledge receipt of your statement via email (or other means of communication if you do not have an email account)
- We may temporarily remove the material from public view while we assess the validity of your information
- Upon completion of our assessment, the U of T Scarborough Library will take appropriate action and communicate that action to you.
If you are donating to the library, please note that we reserve the right to take down material for which there is a claim made using this process.
Note: The DSU’s approach to creating content notes is described in the public metadata dictionary.
Collection Development Costs
In addition to providing staffing and infrastructural support, the library can also cover costs and manage processes related to the description/digitization of materials that will be added to the digital collections.
The library also supports an Emerging Professionals Program, bringing together students at the graduate and undergraduate level for paid part-time and full-time positions that teach digital skills. The library can also collect grant funding towards the cost of U of T Scarborough library-managed students,
The library is happy to provide in-kind letters and budget amounts for the purposes of grant applications.