About Bowdoin Digital Commons

Policy Statement

This document establishes policies for the use of Bowdoin Digital Commons (BDC), including submission of materials, access, and compliance with copyright standards. The Bowdoin College Library develops guidelines and policies relating to BDC and oversees the submission, organization, and maintenance of works. The policies outlined in this document are intended to ensure that items submitted to BDC comply with copyright and that the digital content stored there remains both viable and accessible.

Overview

BDC is an institutional repository administered by the Bowdoin College Library. It provides a place to collect, manage, and provide open access to the digitally published scholarship of Bowdoin faculty and students, special collections holdings, and archival records.

Contributors

Eligible contributors include Bowdoin College faculty, staff, and students who have completed Honors Projects. In general, BDC includes work published by contributors only during their time at Bowdoin.

Contributors may also request the creation of new Communities within BDC. Communities are groups with common interests, such as Departments, Institutes, Centers, etc.

Content Types

Supported Content

Any publication, presentation, or production in electronic format is eligible for inclusion in BDC. BDC is not intended for uncurated data storage, works-in-progress, electronic records management, or personal use. Deposited materials must not be ephemeral, as they are intended to be permanent contributions to BDC. Content consists of:

• Articles, creative works, or other projects authored or sponsored by Bowdoin faculty
• Honors projects authored by Bowdoin students
• Publications by and about Bowdoin College
• Oral histories

Content included in BDC must have some Bowdoin affiliation, though it need not be authored by Bowdoin faculty, staff, or students. For example, papers from conferences sponsored by an academic department, and which are written by both Bowdoin-affiliated and non-Bowdoin-affiliated authors may be submitted. In consultation with the Library, each participating unit will determine content types appropriate for inclusion in its section of BDC.

Content Not Supported

BDC is not intended for raw data storage, works-in-progress, electronic records management, or personal use.

BDC may not be used to store or transmit files that contain Social Security numbers, Protected Health Information, or information governed by federal export-control laws.

Copyright and Permissions

BDC complies with the Bowdoin College policy on Intellectual Property.

Unless otherwise noted, materials posted in BDC are the property of their respective authors.

Authors who have not given a third party exclusive rights to distribute their work may submit it to BDC.

Authors or their copyright assignees retain all intellectual property rights to their material, and must be willing and able to grant Bowdoin College the non-exclusive right to preserve and distribute submitted work through BDC.

Removing or Updating Work

See the Bowdoin Library Digital Collections Takedown Policy for information about removing works from BDC.

Access Limitations and Embargo

Unless otherwise indicated by authors, works on Bowdoin Digital Commons are made globally accessible.

For more information on Access and Embargo for Honors Projects, see Honors Guidelines and Tips.

Persistent Access and Migration

The Library will provide persistent access to the content uploaded to BDC, but cannot guarantee the persistent functionality of a specific web platform through which the content is posted, maintained, and accessed. The Library expects to preserve the content by migrating it to new web platforms when and if necessary.

For more information, see Frequently Asked Questions.