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

Item
Assessment of the hydrological impacts of human alteration of Maryland Piedmont streams
(2020-02-07) Bhuyan, Istiak A.; Roberge, Martin; Towson University. Department of Geography & Environmental Planning
The hydrologic regime plays a vital role in aquatic ecosystems. However, these systems are altered by land use change and anthropogenic climate change. Urbanization increases surface runoff and decreases infiltration, while climate change affects precipitation. This study assesses the degree of hydrological impacts to the Maryland Piedmont using stream gauge data from twenty urban to rural sites from 1980 – 2014. Eight sites show significant increasing trends using the Mann-Kendall test, although all but one sites show increases. At the same time, base flow appears to be steady for all sites or decreasing over time. Piedmont streams share many characteristics regardless of size or landcover. August is typically the driest month, while March is the wettest; Winter months tend to have the least variation in discharge, while Summer tends to have the most. All sites responded in the same way to annual climate variations; for example, 2002 was one of the driest years for all sites, followed by one of the wettest years in 2003. Although all sites experienced the same wet years, it appears that rural and urban sites experienced drought in different ways, with urban watersheds having the worst drought in 1998, while 2002 was the driest on record for rural sites. Land cover had other effects as well. In general, urbanized streams have more flashy peaks in their hydrographs, and have a wider range of discharges but a lower median discharge than their rural counterparts. This research will be valuable to assess mitigation strategies in order to protect the ecosystem, infrastructure, and livelihood in the watershed where urban development is inevitable.
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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.