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Responsibilities and Rights

The University of Manitoba MSpace repository is a partnership between University of Manitoba communities and the University of Manitoba Libraries. MSpace content consists of collections produced by University of Manitoba communities, which are managed, preserved and distributed by the University of Manitoba Libraries through MSpace. As in all partnerships, it is important that all MSpace stakeholders understand and agree to the policies, guidelines and procedures required to build MSpace.  

At the University of Manitoba, an MSpace community is a group, generally an administrative unit, that produces research, has a defined leader, has long-term stability, and can assume responsibility for setting community policies. Each community must be able to assign a coordinator who will work with MSpace. Groups wishing to establish an MSpace community that does not fall into this definition will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Individuals may not post items without belonging to an established community in MSpace. See About MSpace for information on how to create a community.  

General MSpace policies are outlined below.  For specific collection policies and other information about existing collections, see Research Publications and Electronic Theses and Dissertations (E-theses).

MSpace Community Responsibilities

An MSpace community agrees to:

• Assign a coordinator who will work with MSpace.
• Decide policy within MSpace guidelines regarding content to be posted.
• Make decisions about community and collection definitions and community membership.
• Understand and observe University policies relevant to MSpace.
• Decide upon a submission workflow for each collection, in consultation with the MSpace administrator.     
• Arrange for description of content (metadata) and posting of items.
• Notify the MSpace contact of any organizational changes affecting submissions.

MSpace Community Rights

An MSpace community retains the right to:

• Decide policy regarding content to be posted, as defined by Content Accepted in MSpace.
• Decide who may post content within the community.
• Limit access to content at the item level either to University of Manitoba only or to specific individuals or groups.
• Remove items and collections, as outlined in Withdrawal of Items from MSpace.
• Approve addition of or elimination of sub-communities.

University of Manitoba Libraries' Responsibilities

The University of Manitoba Libraries agrees to:

• Retain and maintain content posted to MSpace.
• Distribute content according to community decisions.
• Preserve content using accepted preservation techniques to the best of its abilities, as described in Preservation Support for Content.
• Notify communities of significant changes to content (e.g., format migration).
• If the University of Manitoba Libraries ceases to support MSpace, return copies of collections to existing communities and transfer entire contents of MSpace to the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections for appraisal for permanent retention.

University of Manitoba Libraries’ Rights

The University of Manitoba Libraries retains the right to:

• Redistribute, sell or amend metadata for items in MSpace.
• De-accession items or collections under certain circumstances, as outlined in Withdrawal of Items from MSpace.
• Refuse items or collections not within the scope of MSpace, as defined by Content Accepted in MSpace.
• Renegotiate terms of original agreement with communities.
• Perform appraisal for long-term archiving when communities cease to exist or within thirty years of the creation of a collection.
• Move collections to reflect the current agreement between MSpace and communities.
• Migrate items for preservation purposes or at the Libraries’ discretion if format is in danger of obsolescence, as outlined in Preservation Support for Content.
• Set quotas (size of files, number of items) to determine what constitutes free service and at what point to charge a fee.
• Charge a fee for activities requiring extensive centralized support from MSpace, as outlined in Services (Free and For-Fee). 

      Core services
      Core services are available at no charge to community
      members and consumers of MSpace content. MSpace
      core services are comprised of: 

• Providing a fully functional system.
• Hosting and preserving items.
• Establishing and delivering ongoing support for MSpace communities.
• Responding to customer inquiries.
• Supplying system monitoring.
• Backup and recovery of MSpace items.

      Premium services

      Premium services are specialized services designed to
      meet the extraordinary needs of community members
      and may be offered on a fee-for-service basis. Premium
      services are those that may put extraordinary demands
      on MSpace. These services may include:

• Providing sizeable extraordinary storage.
• Assistance with specialized metadata creation.
• Digital conversion.

The University of Manitoba Libraries reserves the right to introduce fees for premium services as needed to aid in cost recovery.

Preservation Support for Content

When a file is uploaded to MSpace, it is assigned to one of three categories:

    Supported

• MSpace supports the format and will preserve it using either format migration or emulation techniques.

    Known

• MSpace recognizes the format, but cannot guarantee full support.

    Unsupported

• MSpace cannot recognize the format.

File specifications and descriptions are listed in the MSpace Format Reference Collection.   MSpace may support a format if enough documentation is provided.  “Support” in this context means to make usable in the future using whatever combination of techniques (such as migration, emulation, etc.) is appropriate given the context of need. For instance, MSpace may choose to bulk-transform files from a current format version to a future one for supported formats. It is unknown which services will be necessary in the future, therefore formats and techniques will be monitored to ensure MSpace can accommodate changing technologies.

MSpace will preserve known and unsupported files.  In some cases Libraries’ staff may provide guidance on converting files into supported formats. Tools may be available for popular proprietary known formats (such as .doc, .xls, .ppt) to aid in preservation.

For unsupported formats, the record will show the format as "application/octet-stream" and the description as “unknown”. 

MSpace will not support or recognize unsupported formats. Questions about unsupported formats should be directed to the MSpace administrator.

MSpace Format Reference Collection

    MIME type

• Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions type identifier.

• The common name for the format.

    Extension

• Typical file name extensions.  File name extensions are not case sensitive in MSpace, so either "sample.XML" or "sample.xml" will be recognized as XML.

    Level

One of the three levels of support assigned by MSpace.
See When a file is uploaded to MSpace

MSpace Contact Information

Jan Horner
Coordinator, Collections Management
220 Elizabeth Dafoe Library
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada  R3T 2N2
(204) 474-9962
j_horner@umanitoba.ca