Common Commons Terms

Here’s a quick cheat sheet for some terms you’ll find on the Commons!

MLA Commons

  • The MLA Commons is a network for MLA members on the larger Humanities Commons site, hosted by Michigan State University.  

Groups

  • Groups are micro-communities on the Commons designed to facilitate interaction and collaboration between scholars with similar interests. Some groups are private and created by the MLA, like those created for standing committees of the association, and others are open and created by members. For more information about using Groups, visit the MLA’s Guides on Groups.

Sites

  • This feature allows members to create websites on the MLA Commons. Below are some examples of sites. For more information about creating a site, visit the MLA Commons guides on Sites, Blogs, and WordPress.
    • disabilitycoalition.mla.hcommons.org – a site by and for the Disability Coalition Network, a program on the MLA Commons by the Committee on Disability Issues in the Profession to bring together individuals interested in discussing disability rights, advocacy, and justice
    • modwomen.mla.hcommons.org – a site created for the development of Options for Teaching Modernist Women’s Writing in English, a volume in the MLA’s Options for Teaching series
    • Thewire.mla.hcommons.org – The Commons Wire, the MLA Commons’s blog for updates, tips and tricks, and Commons spotlights

CORE Repository

  • The CORE repository allows users to upload essays and other multimedia works, receive a permanent link (a DOI) for the work, apply keywords enabling others to find it, and share it with groups and other users.

Forums

  • Forums are groups that represent areas of scholarly and professional interests for MLA members. MLA members can participate in as many Forum Groups on the MLA Commons as they wish, with no change to their primary Forum affiliations selected when joining or renewing as a member.

Files

  • The Files feature allows users to upload files (images, Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PDFs) to a group from someone else’s computer so that everyone can download them to use on their own computer. Files can be organized into folders.

Docs

  • The Docs feature, are text files that can be edited by more than one person  (like Google Docs) is being deprecated and using it is therefore not recommended.  They’re created on Humanities Commons and can be edited and read online.

Have more questions? Email us at commons@mla.org.