Collection development is the process of evaluating what is published and making purchasing recommendations based on these evaluations. Librarians identify the best resources for their constituencies based on the mission of their organization and the needs of their users. Originally based on printed items, this process has evolved to include audio, video, and now digital items.

The basic concepts of collection development remain the same regardless of resource format. However, there are special considerations when applying these principles to digital library collections1. In digital library collection development, librarians are making digitization recommendations instead of purchasing recommendations. They are not evaluating what has been published, but rather what within their collection is most valuable and unique to users. In doing so, librarians must be aware of the digital resources produced by other organizations. With the implementation of the Open Archival Initiative's Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), resources in digital libraries are easily shared between organizations. Librarians should ensure their proposed collection will contribute not only to their own organization's needs but to the collective resources available to all.

In response to the many disparate digital collections libraries produced in the 1990's as experimental test-beds, the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) supported development of The Framework of Guidance for Building Good Collections 2. It was designed to encourage organizations to strategically plan their digitization projects and digital library collections in hopes that organizations would create collections that are useful for the long-term and can be integrated with existing digital collections. The Framework includes principles to guide development of four aspects of digital projects: collections, objects, metadata, and projects. The section on collections is particularly useful to librarians responsible for making digital library collection development decisions.

The following checklist is based on The Framework and is intended to address the main aspects of concern when making collection development decisions for a digital library collection. If you can answer "yes" to most of the questions then you are building what most organizations consider a "good" collection. There are resources throughout the checklist that will help if you are weak in certain areas and need guidance in improving your collection.

1. Development principles
   1. Does this collection support the mission of the organization?
   2. Have you identified a target audience for this collection?
   3. Have you identified defining characteristics of the target audience?
   4. Have you identified how this collection will be useful to the target audience?
   5. Is the scope of the collection documented and available to the user?
   6. Do you have a written and explicit collection development policy?
   7. Is the format of the objects documented and available to the user?
   8. Is your collection registered with established catalogs and registries?
   9. Do you have a plan for collection maintenance?
      • Is responsibility for collection maintenance clearly designated?
   10. Do you have a digital preservation policy?
    
   Sample collection development policies:

   • California Digital Library: Collection Development Framework
   Digital Preservation Policies:

   • Cornell: Digital Preservation Policy
2. Access
   1. Is your collection accessible to those with disabilities?
      • Have you done testing to ensure the accessibility of your collection?
   2. Have all copyright restrictions to the digital material been cleared?
      • Do you have documentation of rights cleared for objects not in the public domain?
   3. Are all copyright statements documented and available to the user?
   4. Are all other restrictions to access of the collection documented and available to the user?
   Usability
   Copyright
   

   • Cornell: Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States Reference Chart
   • Stanford University Libraries: Copyright & Fair Use site
3. Evaluation
   1. Do you have a method to evaluate your collection?
      • Do you evaluate collections usage (e.g. web statistics)?
      • Do you evaluate collection usefulness (by surveys, focus groups, interviews, or case studies)?
   2. Do you have measures for evaluating the quality of the collection?
   Evaluation
   

   • EQUINOX: Performance Indicators for Electronic Library Services
   • NINCH: Assessment of Projects by User Evaluation from Guide to Good Practice
4. Planning
   1. Do you have a written project plan?
      • Does it include short & long-term goals and objectives?
      • Does it include a timeline for the project?
      • Does it include the budget of the project?
   2. Are your project constraints documented?
   3. Do you regularly produce project reports that provide information about processes and outcomes?
   4. Do you have a project report accessible on the web?
   5. Do you have a plan for project promotion?
   Planning

   • NINCH: Project Planning from Guide to Good Practice
   • NEDCC: Considerations for Project Management (p. 31-44) from Handbook for Digital Projects

1 Digital library is a term of confusion. For some a digital library includes only materials that are the fruits of digitization projects. For others a digital library includes vendor-licensed databases, e-books, and other electronic materials. For the purpose of this discussion I will limit the definition of digital library to the materials created by organizational digitization projects.

2 A Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections . (2004). Retrieved November 16, 2005, from National Information Standards Organization Web site.

 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.