Roles and Responsibilities of Deep Blue Partners

Deep Blue (the Repository) is a partnership between University of Michigan (UM) communities, the University Library and University administration. Deep Blue content consists of works and Collections produced by members of UM communities, which are managed, preserved and distributed by the University Library through Deep Blue. Some of the Collections may be subject to institutional guidelines defined by the University of Michigan Standard Practice Guide, particularly section 601.08 regarding electronic records.

As in all partnerships, it is important that all Deep Blue stakeholders understand and agree to the policies, guidelines and procedures required to build the repository. The following policy statement outlines the roles, rights and responsibilities of the partners as developed by the Deep Blue steering committee. It will be reviewed and revised regularly.

Deep Blue Community Definition

A Deep Blue "Community" is an academic or administrative unit at UM that produces creative, intellectual, or artistic work, has a defined leader, has long-term stability, and can assume responsibility for setting Collection policies. Each Community must be able to assign Collection Administrators/Coordinators who can work with Deep Blue staff. A partial list of research entities can be found at www.umich.edu/res_activ.htm, which may serve as a guide for establishing communities.

Groups wishing to establish a Deep Blue Collection that do not fall into this definition will be considered on a case-by-case basis. The University Library will also assist individuals in locating or establishing Communities and Collections to host their work.

Deep Blue Community Responsibilities

A Deep Blue Community agrees to:

• understand and observe University policies relevant to Deep Blue, and educate Collection depositors regarding these policies
• clear copyright for items deposited when copyright owner is other than author(s) or UM
• make decisions about Community and Collection definitions
• notify Deep Blue of organizational changes affecting submissions
• reply to periodic reconfirmation of Community information
• arrange for deposit and description of content
• establish a deposit workflow for each collection

Deep Blue Community Rights

A Deep Blue Community retains the right to:

• decide policy regarding content to be deposited (within Deep Blue guidelines, as outlined in the FAQ, e.g. "What types of content can be deposited in Deep Blue?")
• limit access to content at the item level either to UM only or to specific individuals or groups for a Community-defined period of time
• decide who may deposit content within the Community's Collections
• remove items and Collections (as outlined in "Withdrawal of Items" below)
• receive a copy of deposited content upon request
• control the organization and presentation of Collection contents
• customize interfaces to Collection contents using existing Deep Blue functionality

University Library Responsibilities

The Repository agrees to:

• retain and maintain content deposited to Deep Blue
• maintain the system that supports persistent URLs/URIs
• distribute content according to Community decisions (access must be extended to UM authorized users, unless prior approval is granted by Deep Blue Policy Committee)
• preserve content using accepted preservation techniques per our Preservation Policy
• provideaccess to Deep Blue content
• notify Communities of significant preservation actions, e.g. format migration
• if a Community ceases to exist, offer their Collections for transfer to the University Archives (the Bentley Historical Library) within Deep Blue
• if content deposited in Deep Blue is deemed to be official University records, it may transfer the control of that content to University Archives, housed at the Bentley Historical Library, while remaining in Deep Blue.

See Deep Blue Services for additional information about support available to Deep Blue users.

University Library Rights

The Repository retains the right to:

• amend and/or redistribute descriptive information (metadata) for items in Deep Blue
• refuse or withdraw items or Collections under certain circumstances - as outlined in the FAQ, e.g. "What types of content can be deposited in Deep Blue?")
• renegotiate terms of deposit agreements with Communities
• perform appraisal for transfer or other disposition when Communities cease to exist
• institute pre-deposit selection or appraisal if financial constraints require that limits be placed on the RepositoryÕs operations
• move Collections to reflect changing agreements between Deep Blue and Communities
• migrate items if format is in danger of obsolescence
• set quotas for size of files, number of items

University Responsibilities

UM is expected to set policy at the University level regarding issues that affect Deep Blue, e.g. copyright rules, thesis requirements, etc.

Withdrawal of items from Deep Blue

The Library foresees times when it may be necessary to remove items from the repository and has decided that under some circumstances items will be removed from view. To avoid loss of the historical record, all such transactions will be traced and visible via a provenance statement. The content of the note should be one of the following:

"Removed from view by legal order."

"Removed from view by the University of Michigan."

"Removed from view at request of the author."

The tombstone metadata will be visible to those who already have its persistent URL, but your deposit and its metadata will no longer be searchable and we will make these items unavailable for harvesting by services such as OAIster and Google.

Since any Deep Blue item that has been available may have been cited, we will supply a 'tombstone' record. When the item is requested, the original metadata (for verification) plus one of the above withdrawal statements will be displayed in place of the link to the object. The metadata for withdrawn items will be visible, but not searchable or available for metadata harvesting.