About Us

Digital Case Collections Management Policy

Policy Scope

This document outlines the policies governing the acquisition, curation, management, and deaccessioning of materials in Digital Case.

Digital Case Mission Statement & Goals

In support of the Kelvin Smith Library and its mission as the knowledge and creativity commons of Case Western Reserve University, Digital Case is dedicated to the long-term collection, production, maintenance, curation, and preservation of unique and distinctive digital collections for the CWRU community, regional community, and beyond.

Digital Case aims to

  • Provide open-access to our collections online for public viewing, downloading, and use.
  • Sustainably manage the access and preservation of digital collections.

Please note that the publications found within this repository may contain words or depict images that represent the racism, bigotry, and oppression that are common in American history. The material has been preserved in its original form because any effort to suppress or modify the words and images would deny their regrettable place in the record of America’s past. Those views do not represent the values of Case Western Reserve University today. To learn more about university policies and expectations for inclusion, diversity, and equal opportunity, visit our policies here.

Collection Scope

Digital Case holds collections from the CWRU Libraries, University Archives, and affiliated partner institutions.

  • CWRU Special Collections
    • Distinctive collections from Kelvin Smith Library, Allen Memorial Medical Library, Judge Ben C. Green Law Library, and Kulas Music Library.
  • University Archives
    • Archival records, photographs, and audio recordings that show the history of the University.
  • Partner Institutions
    • Unique collections from CWRU and Northeast Ohio partner institutions and libraries in accordance with our content criteria and collection scope.

Content Criteria

All objects included in Digital Case must meet the following criteria.

  • All its incorporation is technically and economically feasible.
  • Applicable Digital Case and university policies and laws are followed.
  • Meets the processing, accessibility, and technical requirements for digital curation and preservation (e.g. file format, size, etc).
  • Intended for public viewing and use with a Creative Commons or similar license that allows public access and use.
  • Intended for permanent access and usage in Digital Case in addition to digital preservation storage.

Objects included in Digital Case cannot be

  • Externally linked content where KSL has no control over the management of those objects.
  • Objects that are freely available via other online platforms (e.g. digitized books that are not unique to KSL collections and can be found on Google books or as a PDF elsewhere) unless that object’s creator is a CWRU affiliate.
  • Personal work unrelated to the collection scope.

Accessibility

    *The Kelvin Smith Library is actively working to upgrade our digital collection objects in order to comply with standards for accessibility. If you have a specific request, please contact us at digitalcase@case.edu.

Digital Case is designed for inclusion and considers auditory, cognitive, physical, speech, and visual learning preferences. In order to comply with Level A of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, all objects must include

  • Captioning of films and video clips
  • Transcriptions for audio files
  • Alt text for images

Retention

Case Western Reserve University agrees to preserve the content deposited in Digital Case for the long term. Each digital object deposited in Digital Case will receive a persistent URL (called a Handle), which will continue over time. Materials will be deposited in standard formats (.PDF, .jpg, .tiff, .mpeg) for a higher chance of long-term viability.

Digital Case content is stored and managed as part of Case Western Reserve University’s technology infrastructure. The data is backed-up daily and preservation masters are stored through our digital preservation program. For more inquiries regarding digital preservation, contact the Digital Preservation Librarian at digitalpreservation@case.edu.

Digital Case reserves the right to migrate content to future mechanisms of digital storage and reserves the right to migrate file formats to future compatible formats for display. Because of our dedication to an ecologically sound digital preservation footprint, the emerging nature of digital preservation, and the ephemeral nature of file formats, no guarantee of perpetual access can be made at this time; however, Digital Case agrees to use “best practice” models and emerging standards to increase the likelihood that materials deposited in Digital Case will be available for generations of scholars to come.

Embargoed Content

At the request of the depositors content can be “embargoed” from public view for a limited amount of time; for pending digitization of a large collection or for reasons of personal privacy. However, Digital Case requires an end date to the embargo, at which time the content will become freely available for viewing in Digital Case. Embargoed content cannot be viewed by anyone except system administrators.

Deaccessioning

Content is not to be removed once it is deposited in Digital Case except under extraordinary circumstances, including those related to copyright violation, academic fraud, or deemed harmful to our community. In the extremely rare instance when an item is removed, the metadata for the item is retained with a notation that the item was removed from the archive.

Campus Collaboration

Storing digitized collections long term to the highest level of digital preservation standards requires a great deal of digital infrastructure. While we are happy to review potential collections from CWRU organizations and partner institutions, larger collections (1TB or more) may be subject to a digitization, processing, and preservation charge for their work. Rates are determined according to collection size and labor. Additionally, potential digitization projects or digital collections require a meeting with the Digital Collections Librarian and review from the Digitization Governance Subcommittee. For inquiries or more information into this process, contact digitalcase@case.edu

Policy Review Cycle

Members of KSL's Digitization Governance Subcommittee will review and update this policy on an annual basis in order to stay current on technological advances and institutional needs. Digital Case is dedicated to providing access and preservation to new areas and mediums as we move into the future to ensure continued, innovative, and sustainable digital collections management.


Rights and Permissions

Materials in Digital Case may be protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use materials in Digital Case in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses beyond those permitted by copyright law, you may need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). While the Kelvin Smith Library makes efforts to include relevant copyright information whenever possible for objects in Digital Case, please contact digitalcase@case.edu if you have any questions about the copyright status of a specific object or collection in Digital Case.

The Kelvin Smith Library encourages the use of collections in Digital Case for teaching, research, and private study as described by the fair use provisions of the United States Copyright Act. For help in determining what constitutes "fair use," the Kelvin Smith Library offers the following guide:
Fair Use: An Exception to Copyright.

Whenever possible, the Kelvin Smith Library uses the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ license to govern the use of materials in Digital Case. Such materials will by accompanied by a statement indicating the CC-BY-NC license.