Maryland Shared Open Access Repository

MD-SOAR is a shared digital repository platform for twelve colleges and universities in Maryland. It is currently funded by the University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI) Library Consortium (usmai.org) and other participating partner institutions. MD-SOAR is jointly governed by all participating libraries, who have agreed to share policies and practices that are necessary and appropriate for the shared platform. Within this broad framework, each library provides customized repository services and collections that meet local institutional needs. Please follow the links below to learn more about each library's repository services and collections.

 

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Recent Submissions

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Augmenting Degree Pathways Recommendations with Course Metadata
(2025-05) Allen, Jay; Summers, Kathryn; University of Baltimore. Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences; University of Baltimore. Master of Science in Interaction Design and Information Architecture
Community college students face a variety of challenges when registering for courses, including limited advising access, inconsistent information sources, and cognitive overload. This study explores how course metadata can be leveraged to augment degree pathways recommendations, aiming to simplify the registration process and improve student decision-making. A functional web-based prototype was developed and iteratively tested with students at a midwestern technical college. The prototype integrated course order, prerequisites, term availability, and enrollment status considerations into a user-friendly interface. Through moderated usability testing with 13 diverse participants, results demonstrated that strategically surfaced metadata and streamlined interactions helped students make more informed registration decisions. Sufficient digital tooling can support deeper and more sustainable holistic advising practices.
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Exploring Vocabulary Retention Through the Gamification of Foreign Language Learning Applications
(2025) Anderson, Sherie; Summers, Kathryn; University of Baltimore, Yale Gordon College of Arts and Siceinces; University of Baltimore, Master of Science in Interaction Design and Information Architecture
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Playing with Fire
(2025-07-10) McGlone, Ryan; Natalia Kormeluk; Jacob Muldowney; Erik Messinger; Hood College Arts and Humanities; Hood College Ceramics
In the exhibition Playing with Fire, Ryan McGlone uses perspective, scale, repetition, contrast, and composition to address emotions surrounding nostalgia and war. A confrontational artistic style is used for the current body of work. Mixed media of clay, wood, and wood burning are used to create the large hanging wall sculptures. Thousands of slip-casted toy miniature soldiers represent armies as an undefined mass contrasted with individual soldiers burned into large wood panels depicting war scenes. The thesis examines nostalgia, perspective, scale, contrast, repetition and composition to engage the viewer’s own perspectives.
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Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park: Honoring the Past, Healing the Present, Imagining the Future
(2025-07-09) Howard, Sandra Neva; Millin, Amy; MA in Cultural Sustainability
This capstone thesis focuses on the efforts of Maryland’s Anne Arundel County to transform the former Hospital for the Negro Insane of Maryland, a former psychiatric hospital with a history of racial segregation and maltreatment of patients, into the Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park, a place of healing, education, and reparative justice, while honoring the lives of the people who lived and worked there. The County now owns the 565-acre site of the abandoned psychiatric hospital and its grounds. The County government undertook a civic planning process to develop a master plan for the site. This transition project is expected to be a multi-generational undertaking. Following several rounds of workshops, town halls and opportunities for the citizenry to comment, the County Executive released the Final Master Plan for Crownsville Hospital Memorial Plan on February 12, 2025. I live in Anne Arundel County. I am witnessing and participating in the process of planning for the transformation of this site. Through qualitative research using scholarly literature and other sources, as well as ethnographic techniques, including participant observation and interviews, I will document this community’s place-making process, compare it with the work of other communities with historically controversial properties, and describe a path toward reconciliation that can be a model for other communities addressing similar challenges.
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Exploring Access to College and Career Resources in High/Low-Poverty Schools: An analysis of resource distribution in Maryland Public High Schools
(2025-05-21) Davis, Alicia J.; Wyatt-Nichol, Heather; Seabrook, Renita; Holcomb-McCoy, Cheryl; The University of Baltimore. College of Public Affairs; The University of Baltimore. Doctor of Public Administration
The present research examines inequities in college and career resources between High-poverty and Low-poverty schools in the Maryland State Public School system. This study utilizes data from Maryland State Department of Education Division and Assessment for the academic school year 2022-2023, which is considered public record. The units of analyses include 248 Maryland State Public High Schools, located in 23 Counties throughout Maryland. In SY2022-SY2023, there was a student enrollment of 409,729. This study examined data from 179 traditional high schools, 49 charter schools, and 20 vocational-technical high schools. Stratified sampling was used to examine 25 High-poverty and 61 Low-poverty schools identified by MSDE. Two analyses were conducted, an ANOVA and simple linear regression to examine disparities in resources distributed between High-poverty and Low-poverty schools. Results of analyses showed High-poverty schools received significantly less resources required for college and career preparation.