Media and Repository Support Unit, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries, Annual Report July 2018–June 2019

Increasingly, libraries are recognizing the importance of providing access to the research output of their universities. In a June 10, 2019, news release from the provosts of the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) titled “Sustaining Values and Scholarship” (available at https://tinyurl.com/yyu94aa9), they state, “The Big Ten Academic Alliance will continue its advocacy for a sustainable and open ecosystem of publication. . . . Collectively, our institutions’ more than 50,000 faculty are supported by over $10 billion (2017) in research funding, and our institutions have similarly invested significantly in our capacity to further our missions to advance knowledge. Together, we produce roughly 15% of the research publications in the United States.” This commitment to open information is reflected in the mission of the Media and Repository Support (MARS) unit of the UNL Libraries. We support the creation and preservation of the scholarly accomplishments of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln by providing an infrastructure for disseminating information and scholarship through Digital Commons (articles, reports, journals, books, and more), Luna (multimedia projects), and Rosetta (data) as well as by providing equipment that students and faculty can check out to capture video and digital images. Through our efforts, the intellectual contributions of UNL are provided, when possible, as open access to disseminate information to as wide a community as possible. We provide advice and consult with researchers and students on scholarly communication issues surrounding open education resources, copyright, options for rights management, publication, and preservation of information in coordination with other faculty and staff in the Libraries. We maintain close contact with staff from Archives & Special Collections to ensure that nondigital information is not overlooked in preservation plans. Faculty within the unit have developed close relationships with the UNL Office of Research, faculty across our campus, and colleagues at the other University of Nebraska campuses (through the University of Nebraska Consortium of Libraries, UNCL).