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Overview of
the Program
The University of Connecticut Libraries
have been developing local digital collections since the late 1990s.
Efforts to build a comprehensive digital collections program began in
earnest in the spring of 1999. Since the spring of 2002, the Libraries
have followed a vision and strategic plan
to guide digital collection development and management as well as provide
for the sustainability and scalability of resources through the year
2005. The Libraries' Digital Collections Facilitation
Team (DCFT) is responsible for providing leadership and vision
for the program and for carrying out the strategic plan.
Digital
Collections Strategic Plan
Drafted by the Digital Collections Strategic
Planning Team (DCSPT)
Heidi N. Abbey (Chair), Kristin Eshelman, Patrick McGlamery, and Bill
Uricchio
Revised 18 March 2002
Vision Statement
By the year 2005, the University of
Connecticut Libraries' (UCL) digital collections program will create,
manage, provide access to, preserve, and integrate digital resources
with traditional library collections. Based on the teaching, research
and service objectives of the University, the program will assess the
value and use of digital collections, draw on collection development
and other funding, and adhere to international description and access
standards. The program will center upon or complement resources owned
by the University and strive to coordinate with and provide leadership
for other digital collections initiatives throughout the state of Connecticut.
The digital collections program will also seek partnerships with other
cultural and educational organizations within New England in support
of the University of Connecticut's quest to become one of the outstanding
public universities in the United States.
Context Statement
Libraries add value to data and information
through materials selection and collection development, and by providing
electronic access to information. Electronic access is fast and efficient
and enables clients to process that information with computing tools.
Digital collections allow libraries to create virtual collections drawn
from a variety of institutions or to deliver materials from existing
collections. Therefore, digital collections elevate the services of
a library. The UCL must integrate digital collections and services with
its more traditional information formats in order to meet the ongoing
information needs of the progressive, innovative, and research-driven
academic community locally and worldwide.
Through the efforts of the Digital Collections
Planning Team (DCPT), the UCL has already acquired expertise in the
creation of digital resources. DCPT implemented a set of tools, standards,
policies and processes for developing digital projects. The UCL's existing
digital collections are appreciated for their value to our users. A
wider community now has access to these resources. To be the primary
gateway for electronic information resources to the UConn community,
the UCL needs to move from projects to an integrated digital collections
program. Streamlining a digital collections program with UCL's traditional
programs requires a renewed focus on technical infrastructure, funding
and staff. Description, access, preservation and intellectual property
rights must be viewed in terms of the long-term maintenance of our growing
collections. External or piece-meal funding alone will not ensure the
durability of our digital resources. Collaborative digitization projects
will enhance access to resources without requiring ownership of them,
thus leveraging funds to our best advantage. Developing new digital
assets will become an integral part of the Libraries' responsibilities
and goals.
Goals Statement & Strategies
The digital collections program will strive
to establish itself primarily as an ongoing service dedicated to creating
and facilitating the development of digital resources. This will encompass
establishing a cross-functional digital collections management structure,
regularizing fiscal resources, providing for the long-term preservation
and viability of digital objects, describing digital collections in
accordance with established standards, following established collection
development strategies, implementing an ongoing assessment program,
and adhering to intellectual property rights management practices.
Please note that the following goals are
closely interrelated and not intended to stand alone. They are not presented
in any sequential or priority order.
- Management: Establish a cross-functional
management structure for the ongoing maintenance and development of
digital collections.
Note: Strategies for this goal and, specifically,
the decision on how to create a management structure, will be made at
the Leadership Council meeting scheduled for May 29, 2002.
- Funding & Resource Development:
Regularize fiscal resources for building digital collections.
- Develop a funding model, based upon the
acquisitions budget, that can be used by bibliographers, selectors and
liaisons.
- Determine the "billable unit" or the "work unit"
to serve as the basis of digital collections funding.
- Find, foster, and facilitate external resources that can be leveraged
for developing digital collections.
- Preservation: Assure for the long-term
preservation and viability of our digital collections.
- Engage in best practices for data capture
and preservation copy file format
- Follow industry policies and standards for digital media preservation
and conservation
- Migrate digital preservation copies to reflect changes in technologies.
- Description & Access: Describe
digital collections in accordance with established metadata, cataloging,
and other standards to promote interoperability and provide effective
universal access to resources.
- Review national and international metadata
standards, and relevant catalog standards, to determine how the University
will uniformly describe digital collections.
- Examine access technologies leading to the development of a seamless,
distributed, user-centered portal reaching all of the University's digital
collections and providing access to digital collections beyond the University.
- Assure that description and access developments provide opportunities
for researchers beyond the University to avail themselves of our digital
resources.
- Collection Development: Build and
facilitate the building of digital collections meeting the University's
research, teaching, and service objectives.
- Identify significant University resources
and digital collections that may be enhanced by electronic access and
a single portal; work with academic units, faculty, and others to develop
joint digital projects according to the partnership model.
- Integrate digital collection development with library liaison selection
responsibilities.
- Provide advice to those who are seeking to develop digital collections
for the use of the University community.
- Assessment & Evaluation: Establish
an ongoing assessment program that evaluates user needs and the effectiveness
of digital projects in meeting those needs.
- Apply best practices to evaluate the
effectiveness and use of digital projects, including assessing remote
users through transaction log analysis.
Note: Additional strategies for this goal
will be included in discussions at the Leadership Council meeting scheduled
for May 29, 2002.
- Intellectual Property Rights (IPR):
Ensure that standardized copyright, licensing, and other intellectual
property rights management issues for digital collections are researched,
documented, and adhered to in order to preserve the intellectual assets
and legal interests of the University and its associated partners.
- Develop a risk management process and
detailed procedures for systematically assessing IPR for all proposed
and ongoing digital collections.
- Create and provide a mechanism for responding to IPR issues.
- Implement strategies and solutions that would enable the University
to successfully manage its growing collection of digital assets.
Charge of the
Digital Collections Facilitation Team (DCFT)
Charge | Term
| Membership | Chair
| Meetings | Minutes
Charge: The
DCFT is responsible for providing leadership and vision for the building
of digital collections. The team also facilitates the development of
local digital collections, with particular emphasis upon streamlining
and regularizing the Libraries' digitization workflows and adhering
to the Libraries' digital collections strategic plan. Additionally,
the DCFT is an open forum for the discussion of digital collections
ideas and concepts at the University of Connecticut Libraries. Specific
responsibilities of the team include the following:
- Implement the "Digital Collection
Plan of Action" form to facilitate the description and management
of new digital collection development projects. The form will be based
upon the proposal template created by the Digital Collections Planning
Team and serve as a planning guide and record for the Libraries and
potential project managers. It should include the following elements:
intended project audience, scope, production costs with cost-benefit
matrix, funding, technology and related specifications, metadata standards,
and detailed preservation strategies;
- Serve as consultants to library staff
and assist them as needed in formulating a written "Digital Collection
Plan of Action" form for proposed digital projects;
- Review, finalize, and implement digital
collection plans of action with the appropriate library staff member
sponsoring the project;
- Gather and analyze data relating to
digital collection production usage and relevance to the Libraries'
mission; this data should be reported to Leadership Council on an
annual basis;
- Encourage digital collection development
among library staff by working with the Collections Budget Team to
allocate a small pool of funds for use in creating digital projects;
- Maximize the use of in-house digitization
equipment for the data capture phase of digital projects, when appropriate.
Term: The Digital
Collections Facilitation Team (DCFT) will be appointed for a term of
one year, beginning in April 2004. At the end of this period, Leadership
Council will review the team's accomplishments and composition.
Membership:
The team has three members: the Digital Collections Librarian (Chair),
an information technology specialist, and a metadata specialist, an
individual with in-depth knowledge about and experience applying international
metadata standards to facilitate online access to various digital formats.
The Digital Collections Librarian is, by virtue of his/her position,
a member of the team. An information technology specialist and a metadata
specialist will be appointed to the team by Leadership Council; the
metadata specialist will assist in identifying appropriate meta-description
strategies for digital collections.
Team members as of April 2004 include the
following:
Heidi
N. Abbey, Chair
Eva Bolkovac
David Bretthauer
Chair: The Digital
Collections Librarian is the permanent Chair. While the work of the
team is the responsibility of the team as a whole, the Chair is responsible
for ensuring that the work of the team is done. He/she will also assure
that the following activities are carried out:
- Schedule meetings every 2 weeks or as
appropriate;
- Establish and circulate meeting agendas;
- Run effective and efficient meetings;
- Document and archive meeting decisions
and action items and distribute them to all staff;
- Document progress made in accomplishing
team goals;
- Publish team documentation on Alectrona;
- Validate that team members have incorporated
the team's charge into individual goals; and
- Provide reports to Leadership Council,
including mid-year and annual reports, as well as any statistical
data of the team.
Meetings:
The team meets bi-weekly or as needed to accomplish scheduled tasks.
Minutes: Agendas
are compiled by the Chair. Minutes of meetings are recorded by other
members on a rotating basis. Agendas and minutes are distributed electronically
to all team members and are made available to all staff on Alectrona.
Created
by H. Abbey for DCFT, 1.26.04
Last Updated:
Friday, March 11, 2005
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