UMAINE LIBRARIES NEWSLETTER

March 31, 2026

EVENTS

You are invited to Fogler Library’s public events! Stay up-to-date by following our social media accounts listed at the bottom of this email, and check out our website for a complete list of events

Introducing Open Publishing platforms: Information sessions with Open Scholarship Librarian Casey Koons

How will UMaine Libraries’ new publishing platforms change the way you share, discover, and engage with research?

Join Casey Koons, Open Scholarship Librarian at UMaine Libraries, for a series of virtual information sessions on our new open publishing and digital asset management platforms.

These sessions will introduce the tools launching in Spring 2026 to support open, data-informed scholarship and publishing. Casey will provide an overview of Specto, the new digital asset management system that will replace our institutional repository Digital Commons, including its AI-driven contextual linking that connects research outputs to related data, people, and collections.

Participants will also learn about Maine Open Journals, UMaine’s new journal publishing platform, and Maine Open Books, which supports Open Educational Resources (OER), “living documents,” and collaborative reading and annotation.

Together, these platforms expand opportunities for sharing, discovering, and engaging with research across the full scholarly lifecycle. These sessions are especially valuable for faculty and staff who currently use Digital Commons and want to learn more about the transition to Specto and UMaine’s new Open Access publishing tools.

Please note: All sessions will cover the same material, so you only need to attend one.

Session Dates (via Zoom):

• April 2, Noon-1 p.m.
• April 2, 3–4 p.m.
• April 8, Noon-1 p.m.
• April 8, 3–4 p.m.;

NEWS

Stay updated on events, resources and projects at Fogler Library and across UMaine Libraries. Discover what’s new and exciting in our library community!

Putting together formal reviews of literature? Work with your Research and Instruction Librarian

Creating literature reviews is an essential part of research, and a key element is finding and compiling research materials (articles, books) written by others. If you have questions about this process, Research and Instruction librarians can help!  

Research and Instruction librarians work in partnership with students and faculty members to provide assistance with many aspects of the research process, beginning with ways to search strategically for literature and ways to use citation tracing to find relevant research related to the material you have already found. We will help you with the best places, databases or otherwise, to find that research. Research and Instruction librarians can help if you have questions about managing citations or using research metrics.

We are also available to assist you with Evidence or Knowledge Synthesis like a systematic review, scoping review, or meta-analysis. 

If you have questions about compiling research materials for your literature review or systematic review, find your subject area librarian from this list and get in touch with them! They’ll be happy to help you.

New Web Accessibility Guide for faculty and staff

UMaine Libraries has launched Library Accessibility, a new online guide to support faculty and staff in creating accessible digital content.

Beginning on April 24, 2026, new federal regulations will require public universities to ensure that digital materials meet recognized accessibility standards. These requirements apply broadly to websites, Brightspace content, course materials, documents, videos, and other online resources used in teaching and communication.

This guide was developed to help the UMaine community understand what these changes mean in practice. It introduces the WCAG 2.1 standards, outlines concrete steps for improving accessibility in course materials, and points to tools, training opportunities, and campus support.

Designed as a living resource, the guide will continue to be updated as new tools, guidance, and best practices emerge.

Digital accessibility is not only a matter of compliance. It is a core component of inclusive teaching. Accessible materials support students with disabilities, as well as multilingual learners, students accessing content on mobile devices, and anyone who benefits from flexible ways of engaging with course materials.

This guide is intended for faculty, instructors, teaching assistants, graduate assistants, and staff who create or share digital content with students.

For questions or support, please contact UMaine Libraries Accessibility Coordinator Lindsay Decker.

Update for Digital Commons users: Submission changes and transition to Specto

UMaine Libraries is transitioning from Digital Commons to a new digital asset management system, Specto. As part of this transition, some changes to submission workflows are now in place.

At this time, new uploads to Digital Commons are paused for most content. The only exceptions are journals, electronic theses and dissertations, which will continue to be accepted and processed in Digital Commons as usual.

For non-thesis student work that would typically be submitted to Digital Commons, a temporary submission process has been established. Please visit the Fogler Library website for more information about submitting non-thesis student work and to download the required faculty authorization form. Students may submit materials using the following form: Digital Commons Student Work Submission Form

Submissions received through this form will be held and then added to Specto by UMaine Libraries staff once the new system goes live.

This approach ensures that student work continues to be collected and preserved during the transition, while allowing time to implement the new platform.

If you have questions about submitting non-thesis student work, please contact Digital Commons Curator Kimberly Sawtelle. For questions about the transition to Specto or broader changes to digital asset management, please contact Assistant Dean Meg Colbert.

UMaine Libraries appreciates your patience during this transition and look forward to introducing expanded repository capabilities through Specto.

New video from Special Collections and Projects: Preserving History at Fogler Library 

The UMaine Division of Marketing and Communications has produced a video highlighting the care that the Special Collections and Projects Department team of archivists and student workers takes to preserve historic collections documenting Maine’s rich history and culture. Many of these collections contain fragile materials that require specialized preservation to ensure their safe storage and long-term management. The video showcases several techniques used to preserve different types of materials found in Special Collections and highlights how this work can be supported by the UMaine community.

Photo: Image of a historic film tape being digitized using specialist recording equipment.

Support Fogler by funding an item from our staff-curated wishlist, created to highlight the library’s most timely needs and the resources that will make the biggest impact.

FEATURED RESOURCE

Find unique databases and online resources available through the UMaine Catalog to enhance your research, teaching and learning. Explore something new each week!

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UMaine Libraries is composed of Raymond H. Fogler Library, Merrill Library in Machias, Maine InfoNet, and the University of Maine Press.