A FRAMEWORK OF GUIDANCE FOR BUILDING GOOD DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
Below are some examples of local collection development policies. This is intended to be a
selection and not comprehensive.
• Columbia University Libraries. Selection Criteria for Digital Imaging.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/digital/criteria.html
• Library of Congress. Collections Policy Statements: Electronic Resources.
http://lcweb.loc.gov/acq/devpol/electron.html
• New Jersey Digital Highway. Collection Development Policy.
http://www.njdigitalhighway.org/documents/njdh-coll-dev-policy.pdf
• North Carolina ECHO (Exploring Cultural Heritage Online) Portal Collection Development
Policy. Criteria for selecting sites to include in a portal.
http://www.ncecho.org/colldev.asp
• University of California Selection Criteria for Digitization.
http://www.library.ucsb.edu/ucpag/digselec.html
Additional examples may be found in the Digital Library Federation's database of digital library
documents, which includes the collection development policies of a number of DLF members
(http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/b/bib/bib-idx?c=dlf). Some of these policies concern all electronic
acquisitions while others focus on retrospective digitization. Browse by subject for Collection
development policies and practices.
In some instances digitization may be a valid choice for reformatting paper and analog materials
for preservation. In 2004 the Association of Research Libraries endorsed digitization as an
acceptable preservation reformatting option. There are a number of guidelines for selecting
materials for digitization specifically for preservation purposes:
• Joint RLG and NPO Preservation Conference. Guidelines for Digital Imaging: Selection
Guidelines for Preservation.
http://www.rlg.org/preserv/joint/gertz.html
• Selection Criteria for Preservation Digital Reformatting. Library of Congress Preservation
Reformatting Division.
http://lcweb.loc.gov/preserv/prd/presdig/presselection.html
Collection builders should be aware that special constraints may exist in relation to politically and
culturally sensitive materials. Even items that are unexceptional in the context of a repository can
be disturbing when taken out of context. Selection guidelines with particular attention to sensitivity
are included in the Northeast Documentation and Conservation Center's Handbook for Digital
Projects, chapter IV: Selection of Materials for Scanning, by Diane Vogt-O'Connor
(
http://www.nedcc.org/digital/iv.htm).
Collections principle 2: Collections should be described so that a user can discover
characteristics of the collection, including scope, format, restrictions on access,
ownership, and any information significant for determining the collection's authenticity,
integrity, and interpretation.
Collection description is a form of metadata (see also
METADATA). Such description serves two
purposes: it helps people discover the existence of a collection, and it helps users of the
collection understand what they are viewing. Describing collections in established catalogs and
registries is also a way of establishing the authority of the content, helping users distinguish
authoritative from informal information.
When possible, collections should be described in collection-level cataloging records contributed
to a national union catalog such as the OCLC or RLIN databases. Websites and individual digital
objects can be cataloged through OCLC Connexion (
http://www.oclc.org/connexion/).
There are also a number of directories where collections can be registered. Registry entries can
be created by non-catalogers, and can be both simpler and more descriptive than cataloging
records. The December 2000 issue of RLG DigiNews gives a slightly out-of-date but still useful
inventory of directories of Web-accessible collections.
4