Overview
As part of our core mission and strategic direction, UC Irvine Libraries creates, administers, and preserves access to a wide range of collections and scholarly resources to support expanding areas of research, education, and healthcare for UC Irvine and the broader community.
This document covers digital collection-building, encompassing open access scholarly publishing, research data, and distinctive digital collections, both special and general. It is informed by the UC Digital Collection Policy published by UC Libraries.
This document does not cover digital collections licensed by the Libraries from third-party vendors, which is covered by the Guidelines for the UC Irvine Libraries Collections .
This document does not cover user-initiated digital duplication or reformatting of Special Collections and Archives materials.
Guided by Values
We are guided by our values, which include empathy, innovation, and accountability in support of a more sustainable, just, and equitable future for UC Irvine’s diverse students, faculty, community, and employees. We are people-centered, and we value responsible stewardship, access, transparency, and sustainability.
Digital Collections We Collect
Special Collections and Archives
Special Collections and Archives (SCA) houses the UC Irvine Libraries' collections of rare books, manuscripts, archives, photographs, and other rare and special materials in analog and digital formats. SCA collecting priorities are described in the Special Collections and Archives Collection Development Strategy . The scope of formats collected by SCA are described in the Acquisitions Policy .
Digital formats are continuously changing and have unique, ephemeral qualities that make preservation and access challenging without specialized software, hardware, and/or computational methods. SCA collects material in most digital formats, depending on the stewardship requirements of the material.
The following formats are currently not collected: CAD files; databases; mobile phone data and applications; software files; and/or Syquest cartridges. We do not collect active/dynamic digital scholarly resources.
Digital Scholarship
The Data, Publishing, and Digital Scholarship (DPDS) department administers and stewards scholarly research outputs produced by UC Irvine faculty, staff, and students. The department facilitates open-source publishing and research data produced by UC Irvine affiliates through multiple systems, including the eScholarship institutional repository and the Dryad data repository, both of which allow for some level of self-deposit of digital materials by researchers.
Scholarly Publishing and Journal Hosting
UC Irvine Libraries facilitates deposits of scholarly material created by UC Irvine researchers, including open access publication of articles, papers, books, monographs, conference proceedings, and more to the eScholarship institutional repository.
UC Irvine Libraries deposits selectively digitized scholarly content from library collections using a proposal and selection process. Content is suitable for inclusion in eScholarship if it adheres to all applicable requirements (e.g., peer review, copyright, etc.); the content is of a scholarly nature and deemed appropriate by the sponsoring unit, and the content conforms to the existing format types supported by the platform. See eScholarship’s submissions and appropriate content.
Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)
The UC Irvine Graduate Division oversees the overall electronic theses and dissertation (ETD) process in alignment with UC-wide policies on Open Access Theses & Dissertations . UC Irvine Libraries supports the collection and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations primarily as it relates to ingest and access into the eScholarship institutional repository.
Research Data
As part of the University of California system, UC Irvine affiliates have access to free deposit of research data to Dryad, a community-owned resource for open access data publishing and preservation. The Libraries provide guidance on submitting researcher-generated datasets to Dryad and following Dryad’s submission and publication process.
Not all research data will be appropriate for publication and preservation in Dryad. For example, human subjects data that cannot be properly anonymized may require the selection of a restricted access repository. In other cases, a non-UC Irvine, discipline-specific repository may be required by a publisher or funder.
Data licensed by the Libraries from third-party vendors is outside the scope of this document and is covered by the Data Acquisition Policy.
Web-Accessible Open Content (Digitized and Born Digital)
UC Irvine Libraries does not provide long-term hosting or preservation of digital collections created by researchers that have not been formally accepted by Special Collections and Archives (SCA).
UC Irvine Libraries provides infrastructure for short-term, exploratory use through the Digital Sandbox, a platform that UC Irvine affiliates can use to explore specialized software applications for digital projects. Users must agree to the Service Level Agreement before being granted an account to the Digital Sandbox.
Selectively Digitized Collections
We selectively digitize materials held by the UC Irvine Libraries from both special and general collections using a proposal and selection process internal to the Libraries. Criteria used to evaluate potential digitization proposals include: user interest; rights and access; preservation need; metadata needs; and available resources. Above all, proposals must align with the values of the program as well as the mission of the UC Irvine Libraries.
Special Collections and Archives
Materials are selected from Special Collections and Archives (SCA) to digitally reformat from analog and legacy media formats (paper, audiovisual film and tape-based media, photographic materials, monographs, artifacts, textiles, disk and disc-based media, etc.).
General Library Collections
Materials are selected from the UC Irvine Libraries’ general, circulating, and/or area studies collections to digitally reformat from analog and legacy media formats (paper, photographic materials, monographs, artifacts, disk and disc-based media, etc.). Due to copyright, licensing, and other issues, the Libraries are unable to convert media--either owned by the Libraries or by individual faculty--such as VHS tapes and DVDs into streaming format.
Endorsed by UC Irvine Libraries Leadership Council on March 7, 2025.