Digital Repositories Collection Development Policy

Responsible Group: Special Collections
Last updated: April 21, 2026

Introduction
1. Special Collections Digital Repositories at Minnesota State University, Mankato consists of two digital collections known as Arch and Cornerstone. Together these repositories present digital scholarly, historical and cultural records of the university and region.
Description and Scope of Coverage
1. Arch
  1. Collection Description - Collects, preserves and provides digital access to historical and cultural heritage materials about Minnesota State University, Mankato and South Central Minnesota.
  2. Scope - All Arch content comes from the University Archives, the Southern Minnesota Historical Center, the Marilyn J. Lass Center for Minnesota Studies, and other special collections and exists as either born digital or digitized materials as defined below.
    - Born Digital - Items include already existing digital materials from the University and region. Addition to Arch of these materials is for preservation and expanded access purposes.
    - Digitized - Items include physical materials from the University Archives, the Southern Minnesota Historical Center, the Marilyn J. Lass Center for Minnesota Studies, and other special collections. Addition to Arch of these materials is for preservation and expanded access purposes.
    - Rights - Born digital or digitized materials will be added if the University Archives and Southern Minnesota Historical Center has the rights to do so. This includes but is not limited to materials that are owned by or where copyright has been transferred to the University Archives/Southern Minnesota Historical Center and materials in the Public Domain with connections to the University or region.
    - Potentially Offensive Materials Statement - For materials in Arch that may be potentially offensive, refer to the Potentially Offensive Materials Statement.
2. Cornerstone
  1. Collection Description - Collects preserves, and provides digital access to the scholarly and creative works of Minnesota State University, Mankato faculty, staff, students and associated partners as defined below.
    1. MSU Faculty, staff, and students are defined as current employees or students at the University. Individuals with official emeriti status with the University may also be included.
    2. Associated partners are defined as professional organizations that originated at the University or whose records are part of the University Archives, Southern Minnesota Historical Center or the Dr. Mary T. Dooley Map Library. In addition, if the University or a University faculty/staff member has a long-term relationship or leadership role in an organization, these works may be considered for addition to Cornerstone.
  2. Scope - All Cornerstone content comes from the scholarly and creative works of University faculty, staff, students and associated partners.
    1. Scholarly Works Archive - Cornerstone serves as an archive of the scholarly and creative works produced by faculty, staff, and students during time at the university.
      - Faculty and Staff works - Full-text versions of works and/or metadata records of works will be added to Cornerstone for works that the faculty or staff member created while employed at the University.
      - Student Works - Works produced by students from the time that they were enrolled at the University up to the date of graduation will be selectively added to Cornerstone. Works will be added only with approval by a faculty member, department, or college.
      - Associated Partners Works - Unless otherwise agreed upon, works produced by associated partners will not be comprehensively added to Cornerstone. Works will be added upon consultation with the Special Collections Team.
    2. Open Access Repository - Cornerstone serves as a platform for open access works produced by faculty and staff during their time at the University and for works created by associated partners. This includes open access journals, open access books, and open educational materials.
    3. Rights - Digital materials will be added to Cornerstone if the University Archives has the rights to do so. This includes but is not limited to:
      - Pre-prints, post-prints or author versions of manuscripts produced by current faculty and staff if the version submitted has followed publishers' policies
      - Works created as open access and/or using public domain material with appropriate Creative Commons licenses
      - Works that are owned by a third party (such as a published of a journal or book) will not have full text versions added to Cornerstone. Metadata records with links to publisher sites for these items will be added whenever possible.
Collection Priorities
1. Arch
  - Materials with direct ties to university curriculum or research
  - Materials from diverse and underrepresented populations
  - High use materials (as allowed by Copyright Law)
  - Materials in need of preservation (ex. item is in pencil and the writing is fading)
2. Cornerstone
  - MSU faculty, staff and student Scholarly and creative works
  - Open Access works
  - Associated partners works
  - Other Special Collections materials as determined by the Special Collections Team
Types of materials
1. Materials in the University Archives Digital Collections come in a variety of digital and digitized formats, including but not limited to document, data, image, cartographic, geoweb applications, audio, and video files.
Source of materials
1. Arch
  1. All materials from the University Archives, Southern Minnesota Historical Center, the Marilyn J. Lass Center for Minnesota Studies and other special collections as applicable
  2. Digitization projects as reviewed and prioritized by the University Archives and Preservation Team.
2. Cornerstone
  1. Materials from relevant Library Services special collections including Dr. Mary T. Dooley Map Library, University Archives, Southern Minnesota Historical Center, Marilyn J. Lass Center for Minnesota Studies and other special collections as applicable.
  2. Digitization projects as reviewed and prioritized by the Special Collections Team.
  3. Through a review of campus news, reports and publications for citations or works to add.
  4. Submissions from current faculty and staff, and faculty emeriti.
  5. Current student submissions will only be accepted through established procedures (such as submission of Graduate theses or dissertations) or after approval by a faculty advisor, department, or college.
  6. Prearranged submissions from associated partners, as approved by the Special Collections Team.
Digitization Decisions
1. All digitization projects will be reviewed and prioritized by the Special Collections Team.
2. Digitization projects will be assigned one of the following categories.
  - Supports Curricular activities
  - DEIB Initiatives
  - High demand items
  - Preservation
  - Community focus
3. Prioritization can be impacted by urgency, but the Special Collections Team will establish the order of prioritization.
Collection Maintenance
1. Special Collections digital collections are permanent collections.
2. Due to the unique nature of these collections, preservation is a priority.
3. To protect the materials in the collections, proper digital preservation practices are followed
4. Removal of materials
  - Items will not be withdrawn unless removal is required by law, by written request of the copyright holder for a specific reason, by written request of impacted party, or due to violation of University, Minnesota State System policies, federal copyright law, or other applicable laws.
Accessibility Statement
1. Special Collections Digital Repositories at Minnesota State University, Mankato consist of two repositories known as Arch and Cornerstone. Together these repositories present a scholarly, historical, and cultural record of the University and region. Both repositories are considered archival in nature and meet the four exceptions in Title II of the ADA Law. The Special Collections team is, however, working to ensure that our digital content is accessible to all patrons by taking steps to remediate any inaccessible content throughout our repositories.
2. The complete statement is available on the Archives website.
Responsibility
1. The Digital Initiatives Librarian and University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian are responsible for these collections.