Library:Circle/cIRcle Service Offerings

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cIRcle is committed to showcasing and preserving UBC’s unique intellectual output by making published and unpublished research material openly available to anyone anywhere via the web.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 small batches of items to cIRcle for the UBC community (faculty, researchers, students, partners).
    • Including file upload & description, metadata creation, and e-mail notification of your persistent URL.
• Permissions
  • Manages receipt of the cIRcle Non-exclusive Distribution License and other applicable licenses for items in cIRcle.
  • Provides guidance and recommendations for checking permissions for published materials (eg. journal articles) and copyright for unpublished materials (e.g. presentations).
• Digital Preservation
  • Persistent links are assigned to all items in cIRcle.
  • Migrates files to newer formats (where possible) so they remain readable over the long term.
  • Processes all materials in cIRcle through Archivematica, our digital preservation software.
  • Long-term storage of all items in cIRcle.
• Training & Support
  • Provides recommendations for implementing large-scale project workflows, including:
    • Metadata creation in adherence to the cIRcle Metadata Manual.
    • Metadata architecture.
    • License completion and collection.
    • Digital object management and transfer.
    • Retrospective projects (e.g. depositing content more than 2 years old).
  • Provides guidance and assistance for retrieval of materials
  • In-person training sessions for UBC Library employees who wish to establish submission workflows for their associated faculties (by request).
• Usage Statistics
  • As part of Open Collections, cIRcle tracks view and download statistics that are publicly viewable on collection or item pages by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

• 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. However, due to capacity and technical limitations, content submitters are currently 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.