About GVSU Digital Collections
Grand Valley State University is a four-year comprehensive university offering undergraduate and graduate programs. Grand Valley State University’s main campus is located almost midway between downtown Grand Rapids and Lake Michigan, in the town of Allendale on a 1,237-acre campus. Since its establishment in 1960, the University has expanded to include campuses in downtown Grand Rapids, Holland, Muskegon, and Traverse City.
The Digital Collections initiative by Grand Valley State University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives provides digital accessibility to unique interdisciplinary materials, in a centralized, user-focused Web-based resource serving the teaching, learning, and research community at Grand Valley State University and beyond.
The Digital Collections include highlights from the Special Collections & University Archives holdings, as well as resources collected or created by other University entities in partnership with the University Libraries. Collections are selected and included based on anticipated research use. The vision of the Digital Collections is to continue to grow and build a suite of digital resources that contribute to the body of available research materials and promote the use of Grand Valley State University's unique resources.
Digital Projects
The University Libraries collaborate with partners on a number of digital archives projects to document West Michigan regional history through images, records and ephemera, oral history, and media. If you have an idea for a digital project, please contact Annie Benefiel, University Archivist and Digital Collections Librarian, at [email protected], who can help begin the planning process.
Digital Project partners will be asked to collaborate in the University Libraries' planning process, and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which will outline the scope and contents of the project, define the responsibilities of each project partner, and set project timelines and goals. Selection of digital projects is subject to the Library's Digital Collection Development Policy.
Copyright
Grand Valley State University Libraries make materials available in its Digital Collections for research, teaching, and learning. "Digital Collections" include materials digitized from the holdings of Special Collections & University Archives (e.g. documents and photographs) as well as born-digital materials (e.g. oral history recordings) given to or created through partnerships with the University Libraries. These collections are not all part of the public domain even though they have been made publicly accessible. Many of these works may be protected by copyright. In some cases, that right may be owned by Grand Valley State University; in others, copyright is retained by the original creator of the materials, their descendants, or third parties.
It is the responsibility of the user to determine final copyright status of a work and to obtain appropriate permissions for reproduction, publication, broadcast, or public display of the materials beyond the bounds of fair use.
For more information about copyright, visit the GVSU Scholarly Communications website at https://www.gvsu.edu/library/sc/.
Takedown
The Grand Valley State University Libraries respect the intellectual property rights of others, and make every effort to identify materials subject to copyright, trademark, and privacy restrictions. We limit access to such materials as appropriate. In some instances, rights statuses may be difficult or impossible to determine.
If you are a rights holder and have found material in GVSU Libraries' Digital Collections displayed without your permission, or believe our inclusion of the material violates your rights, please contact:
Special Collections & University Archives
1 Campus Drive
Allendale, MI 49401
[email protected]
All takedown requests must include the signature of the copyright owner, proof of copyright ownership, a statement that (under proof of perjury) you are the rights holder or an authorized agent, and identification of the material claimed to be infringing (such as a URL).
The University Libraries may work with the University's Legal, Compliance and Risk Management Office to assess the claim and determine appropriate action. Depending on these determinations, the libraries may remove the material(s) from its systems, redact or restrict access to the material(s) in question, or continue providing access to the material(s). Removing the works in question may result in the Libraries ceasing to provide long-term preservation resources to digital content.