Requesting a new top-level repository in Collections U of T

What is a repository?

In Collections U of T, the U of T libraries or archives units who care for the physical items and their digitized surrogates are called “repositories” (view current repositories). Within the Collections U of T database, each participating unit gets a top-level repository page and repository collection that acts as their discovery point and container for all lower-level collections and digital objects*.

You must submit a request for a new top-level repository before you can add digital collections to Collections U of T.

Before requesting a Collections U of T repository…

Review the service parameters to make sure Collections U of T fits your needs.

How to request a Collections U of T repository…

Email digitalinitiatives@library.utoronto.ca with the following information:

  • Title of the proposed repository (usually the name of the library/archives)
  • Brief description (this will display publicly on the top-level collection page)
  • PID for the repository (this will be included in the URL for your top-level repository collection and cannot be changed once it is published)
  • Approximate size (MB, GB, or TB) of images you are initially planning to ingest (we may need to schedule ingest support and/or increase storage, depending on your collection’s total size)
  • Emails for staff who will require access to the Collections U of T administration back end and be responsible for the maintenance of the ingest data

You must also confirm that the image collection(s) you are ingesting are:

  • intended for long-term, public, and perpetual acess
  • cleared for accessibility, privacy, and copyright considerations. You must follow Canadian Copyright law when uploading digital images into Collections U of T. If you do not hold the rights to publish the material online, permission must be obtained and shared with Collections U of T service staff.
  • not duplicates of existing items already in Collections U of T under another library or archives collection
  • not being stored in Collections U of T for preservation (Collections U of T is not a preservation repository)

Note: because of service capacity, approving your request, onboarding staff, and setting up your new collection may take 2-8 weeks to complete depending on the request.

To have your request for a new top-level collection in Collections U of T approved, please ensure:

  • You have time available to meet with a Collections U of T service representative to talk through policies and training.
  • You are able to commit to following Collections U of T policies and procedures, both existing policies and with an understanding that service policies may evolve. If you cannot follow Collections U of T policies and procedures, your collection may be taken offline.
  • Staff working on the collection are familiar with metadata best practices and can follow Collections U of T metadata guidelines. If you cannot follow Collections U of T metadata guidelines, your collection may be taken offline.
  • You have staffing capacity to support the care and maintenance of the digital collection over time. Note: Collections U of T service staff will not have capacity to maintain your collections or web content. If you do not maintain your content ingested into Collections U of T, it may be taken offline.
  • You commit to joining the Collections U of T Teams channel to follow service updates (Teams channel launched in March 2024).

Exceptions: legacy digital collections with repository status

  • Please note that the Anatomia, Insulin, Hollar (belonging to Fisher repository) and KCHA (belonging to EAL repository) are top-level collections that have “repository” status for technical reasons due to their time sensitive migration off of legacy infrastructure. These four are the only top-level collections with repository status in the Collections U of T system. The Collections U of T service is not enabled to support repository status for any other top-level collections. Repository status is only assigned to a U of T library or archives unit.

After your repository is created you can ingest, create collection and item metadata, and add basic pages about your digital image collections.