About the Tufts Digital Library
The Tufts Digital Library (TDL) is a collaboration between the Tufts libraries (Tufts Archival Research Center and Tisch Library) and Educational Technology Services (ETS). The TDL contains digitized books, material from archival collections, yearbooks, student publications including newspapers, student and faculty scholarship, theses and dissertations, images related to Tufts University history, and other material that supports teaching and research at Tufts University. Learn more about using the TDL on our Help page.
Some of the content you'll find in the digital library includes:
Theses, dissertations & student scholarship
The TDL is the repository for theses and dissertations by Tufts University students. Theses and dissertations are submitted via our online deposit form, cataloged by Tisch Library staff, and made available per their respective school’s policies. Learn more about how to search theses and dissertations on our Help page. The TDL also contains additional works of student scholarship, such as capstone projects, qualifying papers, juried student work, and selected student projects identified by faculty for inclusion in the digital library.
Faculty scholarship
The TDL provides open access to scholarship created by Tufts faculty members, including published and unpublished articles, conference papers & posters, working papers, technical reports, books & book chapters, open educational resources (OER), and subject-based collections built by Tufts researchers. Faculty members can contribute materials to the digital library via our online deposit form.
Digitized books and manuscripts
Out-of-copyright books and manuscripts from the Tufts libraries’ collections are selectively digitized to include in the TDL. Books are selected for digitization using a variety of criteria, including uniqueness, relevance to current research & scholarship at Tufts, researcher need, and contribution to a more diverse & representative body of openly-available material. There is also a selection of licensed ebooks which may require a Tufts log-in to access.
Archival research at tufts
The TDL contains both digitized and born-digital material stewarded by Tufts Archival Research Center (TARC) including University and student publications, digitized photographs, and other material that is open to everyone. You can search across all of TARC’s collections and finding aids through the Archives@Tufts portal. Not all collections or collection items are available through the TDL. Learn more about using archival material in the TDL on our Help page. For further assistance using TARC’s collections, please visit tarc.tufts.edu or contact the archives.
Policies
Overview, management, and structure
The Tufts Digital Library is a centrally-managed access system for digital content of enduring value created at Tufts and/or by members of the Tufts community, its affiliates, and allied organizations. The Tufts Digital Library provides core services including:
- Discovery and Retrieval
- Metadata creation and management
- Secure long-term storage and management of digital assets
- Self-deposit of theses, dissertations, and faculty scholarship
Since 2003, Tufts Archival Research Center (then Digital Collections and Archives) and Educational Technology Services (a division of Tufts Technology Services) have collaborated on the implementation of the Tufts Digital Library. In 2012, Tisch Library joined in managing and making contributions to the Tufts Digital Library and to the development of MIRA, a staff administrative interface allowing for metadata creation and management and ingest of content.
Collection policies and criteria for deposit are set by the Fedora Repository Oversight Group (FROG), Digital Collections and Archives, and Tisch Library. Management of the system’s software, hardware, and applications is performed by ETS with financial and staff contributions from TARC and Tisch Library.
Tufts University is a member of Samvera. Staff and user interfaces are built on Samvera’s Hyrax, underlying data storage is managed with Fedora, and indexing is powered by Solr.