Collection Development in Digital Libraries Matt Woronko

What is a digital library? Library where items are stored in digital formats as opposed to the analog form Content may also be stored locally or accessed remotely in a computer network Examples include Project Gutenberg, Google Book Search and Carnegie Mellon’s Million Book Project

One of the first steps: The Gopher Useful tool that organized Internet access points in a hierarchy Linked users to other catalogs, internal directories and databases Collection development librarians wanted to use the software to provide subject access to article databases and journals

E-journals and e-books As technology progresses, digital journals and books have seen popularity booms Journal examination usually consists of available file formats, print functionality and saving options Tools for maintaining info about contracts, purchase orders of e-books are being developed as the e-book collection advances Librarian staff have also become negotiators and familiar with legal aspects of electronic content

Putting together an outline Few libraries actually have a written policy regarding items to be digitized Replacements not only preserve items but also increase access Harvard process has been used by many because it presents a more detailed attack than many others

Three step procedure Proposed by Diane Vogt O’Connor on how to develop collection Nominate – creators, donors, researchers and more choose items Evaluate – review the nominations and make determinations about weeding items Prioritize – committee ranks items based on value, use and risk

Nominate Not everything can be nominated because of high costs and limited budgets Another factor is stakeholder concerns and legal issues Lastly, the items are examined to be institutionally credible

Evaluate Compare the nomination and de-selection list to see if any overlap Some items may be decided to be digitized later, when better or appropriate technology is developed Process is aimed at weeding inappropriate items, leaving best candidates for digitization

Prioritize Items are ranked by value, use and risk Value is broken down into informational, administrative, artifactual, evidential and monetary levels Risk is scored similarly with levels of low, medium and high Use is categorized the same way

Some examples University of Texas has three broad categories for materials Purchased or licensed material such as electronic journals or databases Formatted material from non-copyright print and analog sources or reformatted from copyright sources Links and pointers to Internet resources of significant value which are added to the databases Selection criteria goes through four review levels

California Digital Library Three primary goals remain the same for all ten campuses The user base Programs that will be supported Resources available to support those users and programs Library also uses list of 18 principles for acquiring and licensing digital formats including licensing standards

Columbia Digital Library Purpose is to collect information to satisfy the needs of the Columbia community Favors Internet and World Wide Web resources because they’re easy to use Libraries not only have protocol for archives but also consortium purchasing and digital conversion

Almost the same but not Subtle distinctions appear out of different policies Examples of UT, CDL and CU prove libraries focus on their own branch and system’s needs All libraries want balance and encourage a plethora of resources over variety of majors But each has its own interests from practicality issues to promoting the school to specified research goals

Developing a collection from the Web Crawling websites adds a challenge to developing collections Online material often found includes recordings, posters and bookmarks Use of Archive-It to specify selected sites, frequency of crawls and amounts to be captured Server space can get quite large, in addition to setting up the proper metadata terminology

Who else can help us? One group is the information technology (IT) crowd IT department can help fix mistakes in databases early on rather than later They can also educated staff on hardware and appropriate software The department can also know what info can’t be extracted from online resources and how to get the most out of software that does

Digital means changes things Do librarians collect journals by the title or do they go with a group of well acclaimed articles? Digital development means more libraries can and have remained in contact Change has occurred from one journal vendor to negotiating through consortiums, billing clerks and learning the technology

Make sure that we’re seen Make sure infrastructure allows things to be picked up by search engines Use RSS feeds as a sort of teaser back to the collection Allow the interface to provide quick access to library materials A content management system maintains consistent design and allows edits from a single location

Reach out to everyone Subscribe to diverse content databases such as Ethnic News Watch and Bibliography of Asian Studies Tell aggregators diversity and literacy need to be focal points in their products Computer and literacy skills should be focused on as interfaces are developed

In the future Collection development is a good blueprint for all libraries, analog or digital, even if it isn’t perfect Digital world presents unique challenges that many in the field have already encountered New experiments and research will continue to lead to better and more effective ways at developing collections