Cornerstone: A Collection of Scholarly and Creative Works

Works produced by current students, staff, faculty, and staff/faculty emeriti of Minnesota State University, Mankato can be voluntarily, self-submitted to Cornerstone following the collection development policy and guidelines below.  Submissions should be research-based-scholarly or creative works, or works of institutional significance.  Works outside this focus require special consideration on a case by case basis as reviewed by the University Archives and Preservation Team.  Contact Heidi Southworth, Digital Initiatives Librarian at heidi.southworth@mnsu.edu or 507-389-5066 for more details or questions.

Collection Description

Cornerstone 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. 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 or Southern Minnesota Historical Center. In addition, if the university or a university faculty/staff member has a long-term relationship or leadership role in an organization, these materials may be considered for addition to Cornerstone.

Scope

All Cornerstone content comes from the scholarly and creative works of university faculty, staff, students, and associated partners.

Scholarly Works Archive

Cornerstone serves as a record of the scholarly and creative works produced by faculty, staff, and students during their time at the university.

1. Faculty and Staff Works
   • Cornerstone – 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. 
   • Scholar Profiles – Scholar profiles is an add-on service to Cornerstone that allows current faculty and staff of Minnesota State University to create their own profile page that highlights publications and creative works, research interests, and expertise throughout their career.
2. Student Works
   • Cornerstone – 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 or department.
3. Associated Partners Works

• Cornerstone - Unless otherwise agreed upon, works produced by associated partners will not be comprehensively added to Cornerstone.  Selected works may be added as agreed upon between the Archives and Associated Partners. 

Open Access Repository

Cornerstone serves as a platform for open access materials produced by faculty and staff during their time at the university and for materials created by associated partners.  This includes open access journals, open access books, and open educational materials.

Copyright

Intellectual property rights in works belong to faculty, staff, and students as defined by MinnState Board Policy 3.26 on Intellectual Property. 

Therefore, faculty, staff, and students are considered copyright owners and will retain exclusive rights to their works as defined by MinnState Board Policy 3.27 on Copyrights. 

When submitting a work to Cornerstone, copyright owners will grant certain non-exclusive rights to Minnesota State University, Mankato to copy, display, perform, distribute, and publish their submitted work within copyright law or any applicable license agreement as part of Cornerstone.  In addition, copyright owners will grant Minnesota State University, Mankato the non-exclusive right to migrate their work to various formats as needed in perpetuity for preservation and usability.
 
Non-exclusive rights are defined as not limiting a person’s copyright. The copyright owner retains all rights to share and publish the work.  Please be aware that some publishers require exclusive rights to research they publish. If you plan to submit the work to a journal or book publisher at a later date or if you have already submitted a work to a publisher, it is important to be aware if the publisher’s policy requires exclusivity before submitting an item to Cornerstone.  Email Heidi Southworth, Digital Initiatives Librarian for assistance in working with publishers’ agreements or in determining whether or not you can make your work open access.  If a publishers' agreement or policy allows for green open access,  the Digital Initiatives Librarian will work with the author to ensure all policies are followed and will add any necessary embargos.  The Digital Initiatives Librarian will manage these non-exclusive rights granted.

Submitters may select one of six Creative Commons Licenses to inform users of their wishes regarding use of the works submitted.  

Copyright of the materials remains with the copyright owners and a Rights Statement will be added to each work added to Cornerstone. 

Ethical Considerations

Works submitted must not violate any laws of the United States (such as U.S. Copyright Law), laws of the state of Minnesota, International laws, University or MinnState policies (such as policies defined in the Minnesota State University, Mankato Institutional Review Board (IRB) or MinnState System Procedure 1C.0.1 Employee Code of Conduct), breach proprietary contracts, infringe on patents or trade secrets, invade a person's or persons' privacy, contain libelous materials, or include materials used solely for commercial or monetary gain. 

The Digital Initiatives Librarian will not review submissions for violations nor will Library Services take responsibility to ensure that proper protocols (such as IRB or IACUC) were followed.  It is the responsibility of the submitter to ensure that all proper protocols and laws are followed.

If a work is found to breach any protocols and laws, the Digital Initiatives Librarian will work with the University’s Associate Vice President of Research, any additional appropriate university or MinnState employees, and the submitter to resolve any issues. 

File Types, File Sizes, and Supplementary Materials

Most files types are accepted, but it is recommended that files submitted follow the preferred formats found in the Library of Congress Recommended Formats Statement.  

For unusual or non-standard files formats, please contact the Digital Initiatives Librarian before submitting. 

There is no specific limit on file sizes.  Large files exceeding 30MB may cause users to experience errors or timeouts.  File types most likely to exceed that size are audio, video, or image files in addition to large data sets. 

Supplementary files, such as a sound recording with an accompanying score or a transcript to a video or audio recording, can be submitted to accompany the main file.  Cornerstone calls these materials Additional Files.  Please be sure to follow all copyright rules when adding supplementary materials.  Additionally, items such as charts, tables or appendices that are referred to in the main work should be included directly in the work and not posted as a supplementary file.