University Digital Conservancy Blog

Recently, the Libraries and the Office of the Vice President for Research teamed up to establish a pilot fund to help UMN authors underwrite the costs of making their works openly accessible. We've now gotten budgets and eligibility requirements all lined up, and applications are now open!  Please share with your departments, etc. 

Applications are now open for the pilot of the Open Access Publishing Fund. For information on how the fund was established, visithttps://www.lib.umn.edu/scholcom/open-access-publishing-fund. To apply for funding, visit http://z.umn.edu/oafundapp!  Works will be reviewed only for whether they meet the eligibility requirements, and funds will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis until exhausted.

Check out the Digital Conservancy's chapter from the University's e-book, Cultivating Change in the Academy: 50+ Stories from the Digital Frontlines at the University of Minnesota in 2012.

https://cultivatingchange.wp.d.umn.edu/university-digital-conservancy/

Hello! My name is Kevin Cunningham, and I have the honor and privilege to serve an internship/practicum at the U's Digital Conservancy during the summer of 2012. I am currently completing my MLS at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I have focused my studies on academic and digital libraries. A recovering Luddite, I am fascinated by the intersection of traditional librarianship and the digital explosion of the 21^st century. I've also long been obsessed with the scholarly process, and I have a strong interest in helping scholars maximize the research tools at their disposal. During my internship, I will be performing a range of duties, from scanning and uploading documents to the UDC, to creating a data management plan workshop. I have already completed almost a quarter of my required hours, and it seems like I've barely gotten started. Looking forward to the rest of the summer!

The month of April recorded 74,246 downloads from the UDC, our highest number for a single month, and put our overall download count since January of 2008 at 1,515,952!

The University Digital Conservancy supports free and open access. In 2 weeks there will be an exciting panel discussion presented by the University Libraries. Register for free today!

Open Research and Learning:
Collaboration, Connections & Communities
Monday, April 30, 2012 • 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Cowles Auditorium, Humphrey School of Public Affairs

Are you a student who created a UROP poster or paper? Read the FAQ below, and be sure to bookmark this link to it: http://www.lib.umn.edu/faq/21066

Plus, here is a link to view the UDC collection Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

FAQ: How do I add my UROP poster or paper to the University Digital Conservancy (UDC)?

Answer:

The University of Minnesota's Digital Conservancy (UDC) provides a permanent home for your Undergraduate Research poster or paper.

Adding your work to the UDC offers many advantages including the following:

• A link in your portfolio: You'll have a permanent digital copy of your work, with a link to use in your résumé, C.V., or future school applications.
• Visibility: When people 'google' you, your research work will appear high in the search results, because UDC items have higher search engine rankings.
• Your work will be a valuable resource for future U of M students.

How to add your work to the UDC.

• Discuss your plans to add your work to the UDC with your research adviser as well as any authors you reference in your work.
• Read the agreement.
• Sign it and fill in the requested information.
• Send the form (scanned image or by campus mail) to uropudc@umn.edu.
• Email your poster or paper file to uropudc@umn.edu, along with the following information:
  • Authors
  • Your college, department, and/or research center / lab
  • Your faculty adviser's name
  • Grant numbers or sponsor information, if applicable
  • An abstract (optional). An abstract is a summary of your poster or paper of no more than 500 words.
• We'll upload your form to the UDC, and send you and the UROP office a confirmation email with a permanent link to your work.

Find out more about the University Digital Conservancy or watch a short video on how to track your work's download stats.

Contact Jody Kempf with any additional questions.

Here are a few numbers from the UDC stats: March saw the highest ever total downloads at 70,248. That is an average of 2,266 per day. Our overall number of downloads since Jan. 2008 is 1,441,706. We will hit 1.5 million sometime this month.

Visit the Digital Conservancy table at The Academic Technology Showcase (download Showcase Program-PDF) today!

The ATS Showcase gives members of the University community an opportunity to show colleagues how they are using technology to drive innovation in teaching, learning, and research.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012
11:00 am - 2:00 pm
Great Hall, Coffman Memorial Union

Twitter hashtag #UMNats

The Digital Conservancy will take part in the Academic Technology Showcase on April 4th, 2012. More information to come!

Do you know of a department at the U of M celebrating a centennial or other special anniversary? Information about its history can help you mark the event. Perhaps you didn't know the UDC has hundreds of U Archives documents online for your reading pleasure!

Tip: Go to the University Archives collection in UDC and enter the department name in quotes in the search box (e.g. "Department of Chicano Studies"). The UDC is full-text indexed - this means you will get a list of results for all documents that contain the phrase you searched. For the example "Department of Chicano Studies", you can see results dating back to 1972, when the department was founded. Pretty neat!