Frequently Asked Questions - FAQs

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If you are submitting an authored document, please see our separate FAQs [PDF format] for authors.

Do I have to login/sign in to use Digital Commons?

No, not necessarily. You must sign in to see some documents that are only available to current Hamline students, faculty and staff. Signing in is also required in order to submit a document to the repository (i.e. to author). Click “My Account” on the horizontal menu to initiate the login/sign in process on a computer. On an iPad, tablet, or other mobile device, click the settings menu button (3 horizontal lines) in the upper right-hand corner and slide down to "My Account".

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I'm having problems with signing in (“My Account”). What should I do?

If you are a current Hamline student, staff or faculty, please contact the Hamline Central Service Desk (CSD). It will be helpful to know what operating system and browser you are running. If the CSD is unable to assist you or you are an alum or community member not currently affiliated with Hamline, please contact a librarian for assistance.

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This document is currently not available here. I don't see a download button to view the full text of a record. What should I do?

You can contact a research librarian to see if the full text is available or send an email to digitalcommons@hamline.edu. Some documents are only available if you sign in as a current Hamline user. Some documents have been embargoed, they are not available to the public for certain time at the request of the author or creator. Other documents such as syllabi are restricted and only available to specific Hamline administrators due to intellectual property rights of the faculty authors/creators. Currently many of the records in Digital Commons are pointing to print only records. Often it helps to search HamCAT to verify if a Capstone, Dissertationor, or Thesis is available in print/physical format on the 3rd floor of Bush Library.

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What’s an institutional repository? What is in Digital Commons?

An institutional repository is a way for our Hamline community to store and manage digital materials documenting our intellectual scholarly research and creative output, some of which is available for public dissemination. It provides an organizational structure as well as a method for long-term preservation.
DigitalCommons@Hamline is a storehouse of scholarly and creative works authored by Hamline alumni or professors, containing theses, dissertations, honors projects, capstones, creative works, syllabi, professors’ CVs, events, symposia, conference brochures, presentations and more. It also contains some law school journals since Hamline previously offered a law school -- now the Mitchell Hamline School of Law. Please see our About Page for more information about Digital Commons.

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I'm trying to find a record for a thesis/capstone/dissertation that I am sure is in Digital Commons, but I can’t find it. What should I do?

There is a bug in the program when searching for titles that end in a question mark. Remove the question mark (?) from the title in the search string and try rerunning the search again.

E.g. search for "what effect does an exposure to nature have on students during their school day" (without the quote marks)
    rather than searching for "what effect does an exposure to nature have on students during their school day?"
It might help to also see these tips for information about how to improve your search results.

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FAQs Last updated November 13, 2020