1. Purchased or licensed material such as electronic journals or databases. These are generally acquired from a commercial source, a government entity, a non-profit organization, a professional society, or an institution engaged in furthering scholarly research. In many cases this material is not "physically owned" by the library in the same sense that a printed book or journal may be owned, but instead the library has acquired specific rights to the material on behalf of the library's clientele.2. Material that has been reformatted (digitized) by The University of Texas Libraries or the University from non-copyrighted print or analog sources, or has been reformatted from copyrighted sources with appropriate permission. In some cases the library may also serve as a repository for material digitized by other libraries, universities, institutions, or individuals. Typically, this material consists of resources from special collections that have been selected for digitization in order to make them more widely available, or deteriorating materials that have been reformatted for preservation reasons. As the use of digital material expands in higher education, the library will increasingly digitize materials on a programmatic basis in order to support the mission of the University and The University of Texas Libraries.
3. Links and pointers to Internet resources of significant scholarly value which are added to the library's catalogs, databases, and networked resources as appropriate.
1. Content. Is the content intellectually significant? Is the content relevant to the University of Texas at Austin? Measures of intellectual significance include authority, uniqueness, timeliness, breadth or depth, and demand.2. Is the format appropriate for the content? Is the format appropriate to achieve the underlying rationale for the acquisition of the resource? Print may be the appropriate format for a unique item with a low rate of expected usage; while high-use general undergraduate-level information resources, distance education resources, or frequently used reference material, may be more appropriately acquired in a networkable digital format. In a similar vein, special collection material with wide potential interest might benefit from re-selection for digitization to increase its utility and to make it available to a wider audience. An analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of a particular format, along with considerations of audience, intended use of the material, archival and access issues, and overall cost -- are all factors to be used in determining which format would be most appropriate for the library collection.
3. Practical issues. Does the library have the necessary overhead resources (equipment, staff, space, etc.) necessary to support the resource? Do library users have the necessary resources to utilize the content (computers, players, plug-ins, etc.)? Does the license or contract for the resource meet the library, university, and state requirements? Is the vendor reliable, is the format stable, and can we utilize the resource (linking, archiving, etc.) in the ways our users need? Does the digital product adhere to the best prudent practices of current library collection management (including, but not limited to, appropriate retrieval software, a well-designed interface, appropriate format and linking options, a properly reliable delivery mechanism, authentication and security designs that meet library needs, a library-friendly approach to fair use and copyright, quality statistical reporting, appropriate technical support, assurances of rights to permanent access, and appropriate licensing terms).
4. Strategic Considerations. Is the resource compatible with the library/university/state information technology plans? Is the product compatible with the library's overall digital library vision and the library's current infrastructure in terms of its discovery, access, organization, and technical components? Does the product comply with the digital guidelines established by the International Coalition of Library Consortia? Is the product design and delivery consistent with the best practices of digital libraries?
Priorities should be given to those digital materials that offer significant added value in supporting teaching and research over similiar materials in traditional formats, that offer significant opportunities for cost containment, and whose license terms are reflective of the University's academic values. Measures of added value might include: additional content, greater functionality, greater accessibility, improved resource sharing ability, improved linkages with other information tools, ease of archiving, and the enabling of more efficient uses of limited faculty and student time and resources. Licenses should allow the library the flexibility to develop collections that match the University's needs without contractually forcing entangling ties to unwanted products, and without restricting the rights of fair use or the values of academic inquiry. License terms should also be financially sustainable and address achival rights to the resources in question. Materials that meet these and other selection needs, will be given priority over digital material of a more problematic nature.
Electronic Journals:
Goals: To license access to a critical mass of high quality
electronic journals throughout all subject areas.
Observations: Because the acquisition of any particular electronic
journal is staff-intensive and involves the work of many people over a
period of months -- initial collecting efforts will focus on acquiring
a solid core of proven e-journals from respected publishers.
Qualifications: E-journal publishers vary greatly in their familiarity
with electronic publishing issues, and in their familiarity with needs
of the scholarly and library community. In some cases e-journal
publishers have unrealistic expectations as to the prices libraries can
afford, and in the technical and format barriers they expect libraries
to scale in order to access their journals. The library has limited funds
and staff time that can be devoted to problematic publishers. In
those cases where the content is desirable, but the price and practical
barriers are too formidable, we will not pursue the electronic versions
of the journal, but will provide access through other formats or delivery
mechanisms.
Indexing and Abstracting Databases:
Goals: To acquire the primary database in each subject area,
and secondary and tertiary databases as needed by local programs.
Observations: Indexing and Abstracting databases provide valuable
discovery tools both for material owned and licensed by The University of Texas Libraries
and for other material which may be obtained through Inter-Library Loan
or Document Delivery. In some instances these services also provide
valuable links and online access to actual data and full-text resources.
Qualifications: The number of databases relevant to UT-Austin
programs is multiplying faster than the library's ability to fund them.
Selection of secondary and speciality databases will continue to be limited
by available funds for the forseeable future. The usefulness of a
particular database to a discipline or audience group will be measured
database by database, particularly against other types of resources that
might be purchased with the available funds, and against how it fits in
with the library's overall mix of resources and technical platforms, and
the database's prospects for long-term utility.
Full-Text Databases:
Goals: To acquire a complete range of full-text databases that
serve the university's general and specialized scholarly interests.
Observations: Full-text databases are notable for their
ease of use and cost-effectiveness. They typically receive high use
and are the least expensive means of providing access to information covered
by the database.
Qualifications: These databases must be constantly monitored
as the specific resources covered by each database change as publishers
renegotiate contracts with the vendor. By their very nature, full-text
databases directed at different audiences and designed for different purposes
may also have significant overlap in coverage.
Primary Resources:
Goals: Identify selected content that has value for teaching
and research at the university, that would benefit from being more widely
available in digital form.
Observations: The nature of primary resources used in
different disciples varies significantly. The original primary resources
may be manuscripts, pamphlets, books, official records, photos, paintings,
audio clips, data sets, lab reports, digital files, etc. With all
of recorded human history to draw upon, the reformatting of primary resources
into digital form presents a wealth of potential material.
Qualifications: This material is available in a number
of ways including licensing via commercial vendors, free via the Internet,
or via resource sharing agreements with other institutions. The potential
use and value of the material must be weighed against its cost and the
amount of resources its provision requires. Consultation with faculty,
and consideration of the experiences of other institutions with the material
is especially valuable in considering selection. When possible, outright
purchase of the digital primary resource material should be considered
as an option, instead of paying ongoing subscription and maintenance fees.
In many cases this primary resource material is being republished from
another easily available published format such as microfilm; in these cases
the cost of digital primary research materials must be carefully weighed
against the potential usage and convenience of digital access.
Digitization of Local Materials:
Goals: Identify local materials whose wider availability would
aid university teaching and research, promote scholarship, enrich the arts
and sciences, deepen our understanding of human culture, and benefit the
citizens of Texas
Observations: Local materials are digitized both to provide
wider access, and to preserve them for future generations.
Qualifications: Digitization projects require a significant
investment of local resources and are not undertaken lightly. Long-term
value to the academic community, congruency with the library and university
mission and areas of interest, and significance to worldwide users of the
Internet are all important considerations. Digitization projects
are planned in consultation with the Electronic Information Programs Division
and the Research Services Division.
Online Books:
Goals: To contract with vendors for permanent online digital
rights to selected current academic and trade books.
Observations: These services are new but growing in number.
Initially The University of Texas Libraries will purchase rights to reserve items,
high circulating popular scholarly items, and convenience books such as
reference items or items that are frequently consulted but not pondered
at length nor read in depth.
Qualifications: Until these services become reliable, The University of Texas Libraries will continue its general policy of fiscally conservative experimentation.
Alerting and Profiling Services:
Goals: To subscribe to services and databases that can supply
e-mail alerts to new articles, publications, and digital resources in a
library user's area of interests.
Observations: These types of automated notification services
are a way of extending the library's collection development activities
outward to encompass newly published material that the library does not
yet own, and to more fully involve faculty and students in the dialogue
that is the library's collection building effort.
Qualifications: The amount of faculty and student interest
in well-developed alerting and profiling services is not known. Current
e-mail alerting services are little used.
Electronic Document Delivery and Pay Per
View services:
Goals: To contract with vendors for the seamless delivery of
material on a cost-per-use basis, that the library does not own and has
not previously licensed.
Observations: For the immediate future these electronic services
will be mediated through Inter-library Services in order to insure efficiency
and to control costs. In the future, unmediated delivery of electronic
information directly to the user is a realistic possibility, though access
would be controlled via computerized rationing or accounts
Qualifications: The lines between services such as these, and
full-text databases, and electronic journals and books, is likely to continue
to blur.
Archiving of non-University of Texas web
sites
Goals: To undertake archival responsibilities for non-University
of Texas web-based information carefully and with proper consideration
for all the issues involved.
Observations: There are considerable intellectual property,
copyright, technical, and resource issues involved with archiving a web
site. The issues pertaining to serving data that was created on another
hardware/software platform are legion, and any archival consideration needs
to begin with a finding of whether or not archiving the site in question
is technically possible. Consideration for local archiving of a web site
also includes obtaining signed legal permission for The University of Texas Libraries
to archive and serve the data, and a consideration of whether the library
has the resources (staff/hardware/software/etc.) to undertake the project.
Qualifications: Other archival options, such as printing out
screens from the web site, cataloging them, and making them available in
the library; or relying on national web archival options such as
the Alexa project or Library of Congress should also be explored.
Integration of Print and Electronic Resources:
Goals: To promote the integration of print and digital items
through bibliographer subject pages, conversion of finding aids into digital
form, and through the licensing of resources that intermix citations to
multiple formats.
Observations: Integration of formats can be achieved technically
through improved discovery and access mechanisms, as well as through the
efforts of individual librarians via the creation of bibliographer subject
pages, the addition of digital resources to the online catalog, and
similar activities.
Qualifications: For the foreseeable future, print and
digital resources will both be essential in a successful research library.
Collection planning needs to consider both formats.
Overall Multiple User Profiling andAlerting
Capability:
Goals: To insure that the various digital library products are
capable of responding to profiling and alerting services that the library
may create or contract with, so that users may be automatically notified
of new information of personal interest.
Observations: Integration of the variety of vendor based
products of this nature is currently problematical
Qualifications: Campus usage of these services is low, and whether
or not library users would find these services truly useful is unclear.
