Stanford Digital Repository services
Stanford Digital Repository Services

Collection management

For those who manage their own collections, this page contains information about how to set up a collection, manage participants, and how to make decisions about collection settings. At the bottom of this page you'll find helpful information about managing student theses and capstones.

Setting up a collection

Collection details

Required: collection title, description of what's in the collection, contact email address.

Optional: links to other relevant info, like lab, project or program websites.

Collection settings

  • When files can be downloaded
  • Who can download files
  • DOI assignment
  • License, including custom use statements
  • Review workflow
  • Defaults for type of deposit, contact email, and contributors

See more below on these settings.

Contact address

Decide what email will be listed on the PURL page for when a user has questions about the collection. Consider a group email that is unlikely to change over the long term.

Managing participants

As a collection manager, you decide who can deposit to your collection, who can review deposits, and who else helps manage your collection. You will add participants one at a time to your collection using their SUNet IDs (not aliases).

For anyone that should no longer have access to your collection, e.g. students who have graduated, you should delete those depositors from the participants list. Inactive SUNet IDs are not automatically removed from the list, though the users will not be able to access the web app or your collection.

Other manager tasks

You will need to respond to requests or questions from collection participants or potential participants, such as students in your department, who may want to deposit in your collection.

If the review workflow is on, you will need to review and approve submissions.

If you are part of a group that manages a collection, you should discuss as a group who will handle each of the tasks on this page.

How to decide on collection settings

When files can be downloaded (aka embargo)

Immediately

Choose this option if it's okay for the files on all deposits in your collection to be downloadable as soon as they are published to the PURL page.

Depositor selects

Choose this option if some users will need to delay the ability of others to download their files, e.g. to coincide with article publication, and some will not. 

You will need to select the maximum delay the depositor is allowed to set: 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, or 3 years. The depositor will choose the actual date within that time period, or they can choose to have the file downloadable immediately.

Who can download files

Everyone

Choose this option if it is appropriate to allow downloading of the files for all deposits in your collection by anyone in the world.

Stanford community

Choose the option if, for all the deposits in your collection, only members of the Stanford community should be allowed to download the files. SUNet authentication will be required to download files for all deposits in your collection.

Depositor selects

Choose this option to allow depositors to choose for each deposit whether the files can be downloaded by anyone in the world or just members of the Stanford community. This option provides the most choice for depositors and is the best option if you don't know what will be needed for all deposits in your collection.

DOI assignment

Yes, always assign a DOI

Choose this option if your collection contains a consistent type of material that you think should have a DOI assigned. If you want everything to get a DOI, choosing this option makes sure that will happen instead of relying on the depositor to choose this every time.

No, never assign a DOI

Choose this option if your collection contains a consistent type of material that you think should never have a DOI assigned. Choosing this option makes sure that nothing will be assigned a DOI instead of relying on the depositor to choose this every time.

Depositor selects

Choose this option if your collection contains a variety of content, some of which should get DOIs and some of which shouldn't. This way the depositor can make the choice for each deposit whether to get a DOI or not.

You may want to provide some guidance to the depositors in your collection about when it is appropriate to get a DOI.

License

We strongly recommend that every deposit have a license.

Get help choosing a license.

Require a specific license

Choose this option if the content will be of a fairly consistent type, for example all software from your research group, and you want to be sure everyone gets the right license assigned.

Depositor selects

Choose this option if there is a chance that items in your collection will need different licenses. You will need to choose a license that will be selected by default from our list. This is a way for you to encourage a particular license if the depositor needs help or doesn't have a strong preference. 

Custom use statement

No, do not include a custom use statement

Choose this option if the standard rights statement and/or one of the license options meets your or the depositors' needs for all items on the collection. The depositor will not be able to enter a custom rights statement. This is the default option, and we expect it to be the appropriate option for most collections. 

Yes, include a custom use statement

Choose this option if you need to include special terms not covered by our standard use statement and/or the licenses we offer. With this option, you'll compose the custom use statement that will automatically appear on every item deposited to the collection. It will display on the PURL page in the Use and Reproduction section prepended to the standard use statement. The depositor will not be able to remove or change your custom statement.

Yes, depositor can enter their own statement

Choose this option if you would like the depositor to include a custom use statement on their deposit if they so choose. It will display on the PURL page in the Use and Reproduction section prepended to the standard use statement. For this option, you may also choose to write your own instructions to the depositors on how you would like them to use this section. These instructions will replace the default instructions we provide.

Workflows

Multiple workflows are available to meet your content needs. Turn on the ones that are right for your collection.

Review workflow

Requires that all works deposited to the collection be reviewed before they are published. Often used for student works collections. You decide who serves as a reviewer.

Review workflow details

Article workflow

A quick form for depositing previously published works with a DOI (Digital Object Identifier). Depositors will be able to choose the regular deposit form or this one.

Articles workflow details

GitHub workflow

A workflow for depositing GitHub repositories that allows new releases to be archived automatically. Depositors will be able to choose the regular deposit form or this one.

GitHub workflow details

Default deposit entries

Pre-fill form fields that apply to every deposit to minimize the work required and the potential errors for deposits to your collection.

Type of deposit

If all the works in your collection will be the same type of content -- text, video, image, data, etc -- you can preselect this work type at the collection level. Any time a deposit is made to this collection, the Depositor can skip this step. 

You can also preselect subtype options. While the work type and subtype selections made at the collection level can't be modified by the Depositor, the Depositor will have the option to add more subtypes if they so choose.

Contact email

Distinct from the contact email that is associated with the collection as a whole, each deposit requires a contact email. If this should always be the same, it can now be added at the collection level so that the user is not required to enter one for each deposit.

Contributors

For collections where one or more contributors need to be on every deposit -- think PI for a research group collection or the degree-granting institution for an undergrad thesis collection -- these can be added at the collection level so that they are already listed in the form when new deposits are made. The Depositor is not able to make changes to these, but they can (and should) reorder them with other new entries as appropriate.

Library catalog and web crawlers

Content deposited in the SDR can be included in the library catalog, SearchWorks. We can also make PURL pages available to web crawlers. These processes do not happen automatically, so if you'd like to see the collection of materials you manage included in SearchWorks and/or made open to web crawlers, please let us know. Collection managers can choose the ease of having deposits to their collection automatically picked up by the catalog and/or crawled, or the finer-grained control of asking for release of existing items at certain times, such as the end of the quarter, so they all show up in the catalog or are made open to web crawlers at the same time.

Depositing student works

This video provides an overview for students of how to deposit their works in the SDR. If you manage a collection of student theses, we recommend that you distribute this video to your students to view before they begin their deposits.

 

Customizable student instructions

We have created a set of accessible instructions for managers of student works collections to customize and distribute to students so that you can provide guidance on how you want your students to fill in each field of the form.

The "Instructions for Collection Managers" document linked to below has information on how to customize the "Instructions for Students" document.

Please make a copy of "Instructions for Students" for your own use, review the "Instructions for Collection Managers," update the student instructions as appropriate, and distribute to your students as a guide to follow when making their deposits. 

Instructions for Collection Managers 

Instructions for Students