Trexler Library College Archives Honors Thesis & CUE Submission Policy

College Archives Honor Thesis & CUE Submission form

Purpose:

To define the policies to initiate and maintain an electronic repository of Muhlenberg Honors Theses and CUE (culminating undergraduate experience) so as to preserve these works and provide access to the Muhlenberg College Community and the broader global audience as appropriate.

Policies:

Muhlenberg College Honors Theses and CUE will be included in the Muhlenberg College Library’s Digital Repository. Departmental thesis program coordinators and CUE professors/advisors will make participating students aware of these policies, which will also be posted on the library website.

  1. By participating in the thesis & CUE program each student:
    1. Grants the college archives a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual license to:
      1. Store a digital version of their thesis and/or CUE in the Repository and by default make it available to general audiences in electronic format on the Internet unless an exemption request is made by the student as per Section 2, and approved by their thesis/CUE advisor, and the relevant department/program chairperson;
      2. Create a back-up copy of their thesis/CUE for preservation purposes;
      3. Convert their thesis/CUE, without changing the content, to any other format or medium necessary for preservation and storage of the thesis/CUE;
      4. Permit end users of the Repository to download and use their thesis/CUE for personal use of a non-commercial purpose, unless otherwise restricted by the author; and
      5. Publish a bound copy for the College archive (honors theses ONLY).
    2. Acknowledges the following:
      1. Their thesis and/or CUE is an original work, and does not, to the best of their knowledge, infringe upon any third party’s copyright, including illustrations and images;
      2. The College will not be accountable for claims of copyright infringement;
      3. Copyright, intellectual property rights, and thesis ownership remains theirs;
    3. Agrees to indicate their intent to submit using the College Archives Thesis & CUE Submission form no later than one week prior to graduation.
      1. Agrees to submit an abstract or summarization of the thesis/CUE to the College Archives of no greater than 250 words at the time of thesis/CUE submission.
      2. Agrees to submit a listing of up to 5 keywords to be used for subject indexing.
      3. Agrees to provide the final approved thesis/CUE copy to the College Archives via the online College Archives Thesis & CUE Submission. If there are questions, please contact [email protected].
  2. Exemptions:
    1. Exemption Types:
      1. Restricted access such that only on-campus users may access the thesis.
      2. Restricted access such that only authorized library staff may access the thesis.
      3. An embargo on inclusion in the repository for a specified period of time not to exceed three years.
    2. Exemption requests must be placed using the Muhlenberg College Library Digital Repository Exemption Request form, which is available when completing the College Archives Thesis & CUE Submission form and will be forwarded to the Scholarly Communications Librarian at [email protected] for review and processing.
  3. Requests for Removal:
    1. Alumni may request the removal of their theses/CUE from public view by writing to the Scholarly Communication Librarian at [email protected].

Other requests for restricted access will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Adapted from Davidson College

Reviewed 2023