CONDOR:  A New Resource for CMU
An interview with Ruth Helwig, CMU librarian

What is CONDOR?

CONDOR is Central Michigan University's Online Digital Object Repository. Its purpose is to archive, store, and disseminate the academic and intellectual creations of CMU faculty, staff, and students.

http://condor.cmich.edu/

What kinds of materials can one find here?

The repository collects and stores educational, artistic and research-oriented works produced or sponsored by Central Michigan University faculty, staff, students, and academic departments.   Items contributed to the repository are called objects.  Objects can exist in many formats including PDF, audio files, video files, images, PowerPoint presentations, and many others.

Are the materials specific to particular disciplines or applicable/adaptable to many disciplines or both?

The purpose of CONDOR is to provide a permanent, safe, and accessible collection of the academic and intellectual output from all disciplines of the CMU community. By collecting these items in a single location, it is hoped that CONDOR will not only provide a cumulative record of the scholarly achievements of CMU faculty, staff, and students, but also provide the scholarly community outside of CMU with evidence of our accomplishments. CONDOR is intended to provide access to a variety of teaching and learning materials that will enhance both teaching and research, including published and unpublished research data, learning objects and instructional tools.

What are the rules?  Can the materials also be published elsewhere?  (in journals, magazines, etc.)  Do faculty need to consult the rules of the publication where their work was featured before posting it here?

Any unpublished or previous published research or job-related documents may be contributed to CONDOR.  However, no item will be added without documented permission from the copyright owner.  Libraries staff is helping to obtain the necessary permissions.  Student research must have the approval of a faculty member before it can be contributed.

Who can access it? Is it private to CMU-affiliated people or accessible by anyone? Is it for faculty only or students, too?

CONDOR is openly available on the internet.  Search engines such as Google and Yahoo can be used to access its content.   CONDOR’s software has the ability to restrict access to objects that have been contributed.  However, since the purpose of CONDOR is to provide access to its contents, restrictions are seldom applied.

Why should faculty contribute?

Among the benefits to faculty are: 

• Allows the sharing of your work with others
• Discoverability, as CONDOR is indexed by Google and other Internet search engines
• All your work will be accessible in a single location
• You will always have a permanent link to your deposited work
• Provides proof of scholarship
• All works are stored in a secure and permanent environment
• By contributing to CONDOR, you are enhancing CMU’s body of scholarly work and its reputation as an accomplished academic institution
• Some research has shown that works in an open access repository are more likely to be discovered and cited by other scholars.

Will it improve research at CMU?  Will it encourage collaboration and interdisciplinary research?

It is too early to tell whether CONDOR will improve research and collaboration at CMU.  Those are definitely two goals of this project.

How will students benefit? 

Students can benefit from CONDOR both directly and indirectly.  Students have direct access to the content that has been contributed.  They may utilize this content as they would any other copyrighted works.  Students, like faculty, can discover what research is taking place on campus, which may lead to collaboration.  Students can contribute, through a faculty member, research and creative works that they have developed, thereby enhancing their reputation and making their work discoverable by the world.