The Knowledge Bank staff is working on providing policies and procedures for providing access to and preservation of digital text resources. Text resources can be ebooks, theses, transcripts, articles, working papers, etc. The recommended procedure for textual resources is below. The Knowledge Bank can store most types of digital files. The Ohio State University Libraries is committed to supporting (i.e. making viewable) some of these types of files into the future. See Supported File Types for a list of those files.
Preservation and Access Quality Texts
Preserving and providing access to texts can be accomplished in one file format.
Step 1 - Convert your text to Adobe PDF.
The Adobe PDF/A format is the recommended format for textual resources in the Knowledge Bank. All PDF files in the Knowledge Bank will be maintained and fully supported over the long-term. Additionally, the software needed to read these resources is freely available at www.adobe.com.
Step 2 - Record information describing your item.
In addition to submitting a file, the Knowledge Bank will ask for information about the resource itself. This information (title, author, date, abstract/summary, keywords etc.) will be used to create search indexes. Additionally, the full text of the PDF file will be searchable through the Knowledge Bank.
Step 3 - Contact the Knowledge Bank to set up a community and collection for your texts.
You may contact the Knowledge Bank by sending an email to libkbhelp@lists.osu.edu and asking for a consultation.
Once your community is set up, the Libraries offers training on administration of your community and collections, as well as training and assistance with submitting and describing your materials.
Step 4 - Submit the PDF file to your collection in the Knowledge Bank.
You will describe the resource (e.g. title, author, etc) during the submission process and then upload the PDF file that you created. When someone finds the item in the Knowledge Bank and clicks the View/Open link, the file should open automatically provided they have the appropriate software (e.g. Adobe Reader) on their computer.
The Knowledge Bank provides training on how to submit. Contact us (libkbhelp@lists.osu.edu) if you would like assistance.