Library:Circle/About cIRcle

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What is cIRcle?

cIRcle is UBC's open access digital repository for published and unpublished material created by the UBC community and its partners, including faculty, students, and staff. Its aim is to showcase and preserve UBC’s unique intellectual output by making content freely available to anyone, anywhere via the web.

UBC is committed to developing a system for making UBC research accessible in open access repositories and cIRcle is part of this strategy. The Senates of UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan have both endorsed UBC’s Open Access Position Statement which encourages faculty to deposit their research in cIRcle. Additionally, some funding agencies have open access policies. In October 2021, the Librarian and Archivist Statement of Commitment to Open Scholarship was launched to highlight the aspirational goals and professional activities supporting open scholarship across the UBC Vancouver and Okanagan campuses.

Mission

cIRcle’s main goals are:

  • To showcase the intellectual output of UBC and its partners by making the research carried out at UBC freely accessible;
  • To support teaching, learning, and research activities on campus; and
  • To preserve materials in cIRcle for future generations.

Why use cIRcle?

cIRcle enhances the global reach of and accessibility to UBC research and enables UBC researchers to comply with the Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications. For details, visit Scholarly Communications Tri-Agency Open Access Policy.

Depositing in cIRcle offers provides three major repository benefits as follows:

Simple

  • We will work with you to get your materials submitted and help make them easily findable.

Visible

Permanent

  • We strive to preserve access to your work for future generations. Our persistent links won't change every time there's a webpage redesign so you can add cIRcle URI to your webpage, CV and social media without worrying about broken links.

cIRcle Service Offerings

cIRcle is committed to showcasing and preserving UBC’s unique intellectual output by making published and unpublished research material openly available to anyone anywhere via the web. In order to meet the needs of UBC's incredibly diverse community and output, cIRcle provides several services to help facilitate the deposit of content. These services include but are not limited to:

  • Mediated Deposit and Self-Deposit Support
    • Assistance with uploading content created by the UBC community (faculty, researchers, students, partners).
      • Including file upload & description, metadata creation, and e-mail notification of your persistent URL.
  • Permissions
    • Provide guidance and recommendations for checking permissions for published materials (e.g. journal articles) and copyright for unpublished materials (e.g. presentations).
    • Manage receipt of the cIRcle Non-exclusive Distribution License and other applicable licenses for items in cIRcle.
  • Metadata Quality
    • Apply detailed standards and workflows to promote and support consistency, accuracy, and discoverability.
    • Perform ongoing metadata enhancements to align with current developments in technology, policy, and best practices.
  • Digital Preservation
    • Assign persistent links (URI and DOI) to all items in cIRcle.
    • Migrate files to newer formats (where possible) so they remain readable over the long term.
    • Ensure preservation of repository content through Archivematica, our digital preservation software.
  • Training & Support
    • Consultations for large-scale project workflows, including:
      • Metadata creation in adherence to the cIRcle Metadata Manual.
      • Metadata architecture.
      • Permissions support and license receipt coordination.
      • Content delivery workflow design.
      • Workflow design and support for retrospective projects (e.g. depositing content more than 2 years old).
    • Guidance and assistance on identifying and retrieving materials via Open Collections, UBC Library's multi-repository discovery portal.
    • In-person training sessions for UBC Library employees who wish to establish submission workflows for their associated faculties (by request).
  • Usage Statistics
    • Track view and download statistics via Open Collections and Google Analytics.
  • Large deposits
    • cIRcle welcomes content and project proposals from the UBC community. To manage projects, we invite those interested in submitting large batches of content (i.e. more than 10) to complete a Content Proposal Form on the cIRcle web site. You can also download the form and email a completed version to circle.repository@ubc.ca. This form is used for large batches of content that typically require a consult with the cIRcle office regarding permissions and metadata requirements before content can be uploaded to the repository. In order for content to be properly assessed, the form must be filled out by the project sponsor or supervisor. You can review this form before submitting to learn more about some of the questions we typically ask our contributors.

Submitter Responsibilities

cIRcle is happy to help facilitate the deposit of any content that fits within our Content Guidelines. Content submitters are responsible for the following:

  • Providing descriptive information (e.g. title, author(s), date, etc.) for materials that are non-textual, not in English, or in large batches.
    • If descriptive information is not present on the item or in a language other than English, information must be provided by the submitter or be available at another source (e.g. on a separate website).
    • For large batches of content, information should be provided in a separate spreadsheet. Please contact cIRcle for information on how to format this information and to receive training in metadata creation. The point at which a batch of content becomes too large for cIRcle to perform description will depend on the complexity of the content and will be determined by the cIRcle Office once the content can be assessed.
  • Ensuring digital objects are in a state ready for upload (i.e. rotating, redacting, creating PDFs from web-pages, digitizing analogue materials, converting items for upload, etc).
  • Liaising with publishers to determine permissions for previously published content (cIRcle may be able to help with checking publisher websites for relevant policy).
  • Enforcing program/course requirements for student deposit to cIRcle or for providing students with incentives to deposit into cIRcle.
  • Pursuing licenses for projects aiming to deposit large amounts of retrospective works. cIRcle can provide workflow recommendations for obtaining licenses for old content (e.g. more than 2 years old).
  • Instructions are available in the API Documentation for those submitters who would like to build separate websites or repositories that harvest from cIRcle using the Open Collections API. The cIRcle Office can offer consultations on metadata implementation and provide recommendations for how to make your materials more discoverable via the API.

Reports

The cIRcle Impact and Activity Report 2022-2023 describes the engagement of UBC researchers, students, and community partners with cIRcle, and illustrates the dissemination of their scholarly work.

Previous Reports:

cIRcle Impact and Activity Report 2021-2022

cIRcle Impact and Activity Report 2020-2021

cIRcle Impact and Activity Report 2019-2020

cIRcle Impact and Activity Report 2018-2019

cIRcle Impact and Activity Report 2017-2018

cIRcle Impact and Activity Report 2016-2017

cIRcle Impact and Activity Report 2015-2016

cIRcle Impact and Activity Report 2013

InterPARES 3 Project: cIRcle Case Study (15)

For more cIRcle news and activities, read our previous “cIRcle in the headlines: December edition” updates from 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.