MSpace

Institutional repository

MSpace is the University of Manitoba’s repository for scholarly works. It is maintained by Libraries staff in System and Research Services and Digital Strategies units and adheres to internal governance including content and repository (MSpace) policy. This repository fulfills the infrastructure requirements of research-intensive organizations in Canada in support of the Canadian Tri-Agency’s open access and data management policies. As part of institutional obligation, the funder metadata is to maximize reporting and discovery to the national funder. 

Software Platform
DSpace by Lyrasis is the software platform that serves as the foundation for MSpace. It is an open-source platform that some Canadian research-intensive universities utilize in providing an institutional repository. University of Manitoba Libraries is listed as a bronze level member.

Discovery
MSpace exposes its metadata to search engines and aggregators as part of discovery in the larger information ecosystem. Primary aggregators, engines and indexers include Google Scholar, OpenAIRE EXPLORE - Canadian Aggregator, Canada Research, Thesis Canada (Library and Archives Canada) among others. 

Repository Structure
MSpace is comprised of communities and collections. Works are deposited into these collections in one or more methods: self-deposit by UM community members; deposit by collection managers for the collection; and auto-deposit. Regardless of method, deposit is subject to human review prior to acceptance into MSpace.

Once deposits are accepted, they are assigned a permanent URL or handle . DOI assignment available on request.

Policy

Libraries endeavors to ensure that MSpace is compliant with national and international standards and regulations to enhance discovery and access to all works deposited in the repository to both the public and the scholarly community.

University of Manitoba Libraries' content policy governs the types of content that is accepted in MSpace and other Libraries' managed repositories.

Works must be in legal compliance with copyright law, both national and international, when applicable. Each submission will be asked to consent to the Copyright and Distribution agreement.

The MSpace Policy outlines all boundaries and statements governing the repository, including:

• Acquisition
• Submission requirements
• Technical requirements
• Limits on Public Access to Materials
• Withdrawal of Public Access
• Permanent Removal of Materials
• Preservation of Materials

Inquiries about aspects of this policy, specifically limits on and/or withdrawing of public access of materials, should consult the Support section of this webpage for contact information.

Auto deposit

The University of Manitoba Libraries negotiates license/subscription contracts with commercial publishers. As publishers continue to introduce and/or establish new license arrangements to meet open mandates, many types of “Publish and 2 Read” or Transformative Agreement models are emerging. Depending on the type of license and/or what is negotiated, an option to enable auto-deposit may be included. The deposit is a direct exchange between the publisher and MSpace by way of a transfer protocol overseen by University of Manitoba Libraries technical staff. The timing of availability in the receiving repository is dependent on a few factors: (i) supply-side: transfer of the item from the publisher is usually on a schedule, and the frequency varies from provider to provider; (ii) receiver-side: once received by MSpace technical staff, there may be processing steps that will influence the availability date of the item in the repository.

At present, UM has one auto-deposit pathway in place, with publisher BMC. This pathway is a result of a negotiated understanding between Libraries and the publisher; it is enabled through affiliation information provided by the author at time of publication (either email domain or persistent identifier).

Deposit by collection manager(s)

Some communities/sub-communities/collections have been established by the respective Owner to showcase works created as part of a program or to reflect the mandate of the Owner. Owners have an established relationship with the University of Manitoba and includes institutions, centres, and departments. Submissions to these collections are made by the collection manager, usually the liaison librarian or designated representive of the collection Owner.

See Depositing Help to investigate how to set up a collection for your department, and how to contact collection owners/representatives.

Support

For all inquiries and requests for MSpace, use the Library Research Services’ MSpace request form or see depositing help.