Glossary

Bitstream: The binary form of data

Collection Curator: An individual responsible for managing all aspects of a collection within TSW. Each collection will have one or more curators who will help define specific procedures and guidelines. The curator will be a faculty or staff member from a department, research unit, and/or library.

Collection Curator is one of three management roles within TSW:

  • Repository Curator: overall management of TSW
  • Community Administrator: management of a community within TSW
  • Collection Curator/Administrator: management of a collection within a community

Community/Collection: Texas ScholarWorks uses DSpace software which supports a simple hierarchy structure of communities and collections. Communities hold a collection or collections, and the collection holds digital works.

Community Administrator: An individual responsible for managing all aspects of a community or the person responsible for communication with the library staff managing the community. Each community will have one or more administrators who will help define specific procedures and guidelines. The community administrator will be a faculty or staff member from a department, research unit, and/or library.

Community Administrator is one of three management roles within TSW:

  • Repository Curator: overall management of TSW
  • Community Administrator: management of a community within TSW
  • Collection Curator/Administrator: management of a collection within a community

Copyright Violation: Unauthorized use of material that is covered by copyright law, in a manner that violates one of the copyright owner's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.

Derivative File: For the purposes of the Texas ScholarWorks, a derivative file is a version of the original file in a file format considered to be more stable than the original file format. For example, if a work is submitted as a Word document we may create a derivative in a plain text format. For additional information about the preservation of original and derivative files, please see the Preservation Policy.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): A unique character string used to identify an object. The DOI for a document remains fixed over the lifetime of the document even if its location (URL) or other metadata change.

Digital Preservation: The series of managed activities necessary to ensure authenticity of and continued access to digital materials for as long as possible.

DSpace: Open-source digital repository software developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries and Hewlett-Packard. DSpace is used by institutions worldwide to capture, store, index, and redistribute digital data in a variety of formats. More detailed information can be found on the DSpace website.

Embargo: An instruction to restrict access to a work for a specified period of time. Please contact the Repository Curator if you have questions about restricting access to your work.

File Format Migration: Moving or converting data from one file format to another format considered to be more stable. For the purposes of the Texas ScholarWorks, the new file is considered a derivative file. For additional information about the preservation of original and derivative files, please see the Preservation Policy.

Institutional Repository: An online database that archives, in digital format, the scholarly output of an institution and makes that output freely available.

Metadata: Information used to identify and describe works within TSW. This information facilitates searching TSW and includes the title, creator, and date of a work, as well as technical information such as the file size and file format. Please see our metadata guidelines.

Non-exclusive Rights: Rights are not limited or restricted to one party. Granting non-exclusive rights to Texas ScholarWorks when you submit your work still enables you to grant, assign, or retain any and all rights you had before your submission. Please see the Copyright and Licensing Repository Policy for additional information.

OAI-PMH: Open Archives Initiative-Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) is a harvesting protocol for sharing data between online services such as repositories.

Open Access: Providing unrestricted online access to scholarly works.

Open Archival Information System (OAIS): An international standard (ISO 14721:2012) that describes the components and processes necessary for a digital archive.

OAIster: Using OAI-PMH, OAIster harvests descriptive data from repositories, digital libraries, and online journals to create a searchable catalog of digital resources. Additional information about OAIster can be found at http://oaister.worldcat.org/.

Persistent URL: A permanent web address that will not change. TSW is using the Handle System for persistent URLs.

Post-print: The version of an article after edits from peer review but before final publisher copyediting and conversion to PDF. Sometimes referred to as the final accepted version or the author's final manuscript.

Pre-print: The version of an article before it undergoes peer review. Sometimes referred to as the submitted version.

Recommended File Formats: These are file formats that TSW considers stable and therefore compatible with long-term preservation efforts. In general, these formats have the following characteristics: openly documented; supported by a range of software platforms; widely adopted; lossless data compression or no compression; non-proprietary; and does not contain embedded files or embedded programs. Please see Recommended File Formats for a list of the formats preferred for TSW.

Repository Curator: The Repository Curator is responsible for managing all aspects of TSW, including coordinating the various communities and collections within TSW. The Repository Curator is a staff member at the UT Libraries and can be contacted at tsw@utlists.utexas.edu.

Repository Curator is one of three management roles within TSW:

  • Repository Curator: overall management of TSW
  • Community Administrator: management of a community within TSW
  • Collection Curator/Administrator: management of a collection within a community

Storage Media Refreshment: Copying data from one long-term storage medium to another of the same type, with no change whatsoever in the bitstream (the binary form of the data).