Swarthmore College Libraries Digital Collection Development Policy

Transcription

1 Swarthmore College Libraries Digital Collection Development Policy March 2015 Table of Contents Introduction Audience Scope Selection Criteria Accession Preservation Access Withdrawal Policy Rights and Permissions Policy Review Appendix A: Supported File Formats Appendix B: Peace Collection Collection Development Policy 1

2 Introduction The Swarthmore College Libraries Digital Collections seek to support the Libraries mission: The Libraries exist as the center of community that foster critical inquiry, scholarly discovery and engagement, and innovation and creativity - a dynamic forum for people and ideas. Working in collaboration with the missions of Swarthmore Libraries, Friends Historical Library, Peace Collection, and the Swarthmore College Rare Book Collection, the Digital Collection Development Policy addresses the policies and procedures related to the collection, preservation, management, and development of digital collections of historical, scholarly, and pedagogical value. It is designed to provide an overview of the types and formats of digital items the libraries currently hold and accept, as well as outline how these items are selected. Due in part to the nature of this policy, specific workflows and procedures can be found in separate documents. In this document, digital collections are defined as collections consisting of digital objects that are selected and organized to facilitate their discovery, access, and use. Objects, metadata, and 1 the user interface together create the user experience of a collection. Audience Intended audiences for individual collections are determined through collaboration with Digital Initiatives & Scholarship (DI&S) staff and can include: Students, faculty, and staff of Swarthmore College Members of the TriCollege community Scholars Swarthmore College alumni Members of the general public Targeted audiences will depend on the nature of the collection and the group(s) contributing content. Scope Digital Collections preserves and provides access to digitized and digital materials of historical, scholarly and pedagogical value to the Swarthmore community, to researchers, and to the general public. Digital Collections focuses on the unique or rare materials of the Swarthmore 1 NISO Framework Advisory Group. (2007, December). A Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections, 3rd edition. Retrieved from 2

3 College Libraries. It also houses the intellectual and creative output generated or sponsored by the Swarthmore community. Through our digital collections, DI&S provides preservation and access to a range of materials, including print, manuscript, photographic, moving image, sound and website collections. We also consider basic preservation of other established and emerging digital formats that fall within the scope of our collections. Materials in Digital Collections meet the collecting guidelines of contributing departments, including Friends Historical Library, Peace Collection, and Swarthmore College Rare Book Collection. Some material may be accessioned directly by DI&S, in addition to those above, if that material meets the following guidelines: Digital work in supported file formats For work in copyright, permission to preserve and distribute the work, privileging collections to which we can provide open access Work submitted or sponsored by members of the Swarthmore community, including faculty, students, alumni and staff (for example, student theses, recordings of public lectures and performances, alumni publications and conference proceedings) In order to support emerging as well as existing models of scholarship, DI&S also engages in exploratory, provisional hosting and storage activities in the context of offering other digital scholarship services. While this could lead to materials collected outside the scope of our permanent collections in terms of access, copyright or supported file formats, such activities are important in potentially steering future policy and serving the evolving needs of our user communities. Selection Criteria DI&S prioritizes collections based on the following set of guiding values. Research and Pedagogical Value Materials that have demonstrated history of use by faculty, researchers, students, or staff. Materials that have intellectual and/or artifactual significance. Assessing the significance of a collection requires the evaluation a number of factors including: Can the importance of the materials be confirmed by experts in a relevant field? Do the materials complement existing collections? 3

4 Use Value Materials that meet a baseline level of physical quality and legibility for the purpose of generating usable digital surrogates. Materials whose continued use is at risk through a range of factors including physical fragility, chemical instability, and format obsolescence. Materials for which DI&S has permission to share freely, prioritizing: Works in the public domain or released under alternative copyright licenses such as Creative Commons Works for which Swarthmore College holds the copyright Works for which we have obtained permission to digitize and share Materials for which access and reuse will be substantially improved by digitization and the application of metadata. Materials or collections that are completely or partially described, captioned, labeled, processed, or cataloged. Instances in which these criteria is not fully met will be handled on a case by case basis depending on factors including the type and depth of description required, resource availability, and research and pedagogical demand for access. Materials or collections with no description will not be selected. Community Value Materials that support or reflect the College s commitment to being an intentional community dedicated to the common good. Materials that support or reflect the College s commitment to manifesting a diverse, inclusive, and engaged community. Materials that promote sustainability, service, social action, and social responsibility. Accession The Swarthmore College Libraries Digital Collections consist of collections contributed by campus groups as defined under Scope. Those wishing to contribute collections should contact the Digital Initiatives Office ([email protected]) to consult with staff who will review and evaluate the collection. Digital Initiatives staff will work with the group to assist 4

5 them in setting up their collection, determining the metadata to be collected, and establishing workflows. Depending on the collection and the availability of resources, Digital Initiatives will accept physical records and manage the digital conversion process either using equipment on the premises or contracting with third-party organizations. We can convert manuscript pages, photographs and bound materials as well as some legacy audio and video formats into files that meet our technical specifications and metadata standards. Supported file formats appear in Appendix A. Groups contributing content will: 1. Select, submit and describe content according to a minimum standard of metadata 2. Make decisions about collection definitions 3. Assign a coordinator to work with Digital Initiatives staff 4. Demonstrate that copyright or appropriate permissions were secured for items submitted 5. Determine who may submit content 6. Determine availability of content, whether it is to be limited to Swarthmore only, the Tri-Colleges only or open to the public The Libraries maintain the right to: 1. Redistribute, add, or amend metadata for items in digital collections 2. Renegotiate terms of original agreement with groups 3. Perform appraisal for long-term archiving when groups cease to exist 4. Move collections between systems as appropriate 5. Migrate items if format is in danger of obsolescence 6. Establish quotas (size of files, number of items) and determine fee structures 7. Deaccession or remove from view items or collections which not longer adhere to the mission, guiding principles, collection development criteria, or standards stated in this policy. Please see our Withdrawal Policy. Preservation DI&S is committed to responsible and sustainable management of submitted works by applying best practices for digital preservation while also acknowledging the complexities involved in preserving digital information. Preservation steps may include format migration, normalization, and/or emulation. Which steps DI&S will take to perpetuate accessibility of a file are determined by the nature of the file format. 5

6 The TriCollege instance of DSpace functions as a primary repository and focus for the Libraries preservation efforts. For each additional locally hosted collection of digital content, the Libraries define appropriate levels of preservation support. At this time, DI&S is committed to preserving the bitstream. Further practical measures to preserve as much functionality ( look and feel ) of the original as possible will be employed as resources permit, but the repository and DI&S staff make no guarantee. Please see Appendix A for supported file formats. Access Items in our digital collections will be considered free for all to view, in accordance with standard open access principals, unless otherwise negotiated with DI&S staff. In some cases, items may be limited to Collection Administrators, users from the Tri-College Consortium (Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore Colleges), or users from the Swarthmore community. Under negotiated circumstances an item can fall under an embargo in which access is limited or blocked. Items can be embargoed for any amount of time at the discretion of the submitting group before defaulting to a less restrictive level of access. Withdrawal Policy Persons who have questions or who wish to contest the inclusion of specific works in our digital collections may contact the Digital Initiatives Office ([email protected]). Individual items or entire collections may need to be removed or de-accessioned for reasons including no longer meeting selection criteria, collection weeding, storage, or copyright dispute, among others. DI&S will make these decisions, consulting with colleagues in Friends Historical Library, the Peace Collection, or the Digital Asset Management and Preservation Working Group as appropriate. Rights and Permissions Commercial use or distribution of any work in our digital collections is not permitted without prior permission of the copyright holder. Users of our collections are responsible for determining copyright restrictions on works they seek to reuse. Swarthmore College holds copyright to selected works featured in our digital collections for which those rights were granted by the donor, in accordance with U.S. and international copyright laws. Copyright to some materials, however, may belong to the authors or their descendants, or may be in the public domain. 6

7 Requests to reproduce any work on this site should be sent to unless otherwise noted. Policy Review This Digital Collection Development Policy will be reviewed annually by DI&S staff in order to incorporate changes such as evolving technology or collection goals. 7

8 Appendix A: Supported File Formats Text Formats Microsoft formats should be converted to PDF/A or CSV for full support. Format Extension Notes PDF/A CSV Plain Text (US-ASCII, UTF-8).pdf.csv.txt XML.xml To ensure the best available support, include the DTD along with a well-formed XML file that is valid according to the included DTD. SGML.sgm,.sgml Requires that the depositor also include the DTD along with the SGML file. HTML.html,.htm Submissions of HTML files must also include all other referenced files such as CSS files. Image Formats For long-term preservation, images saved without compression are best. If compression status is not known, preserve the highest quality version (usually the version with the largest file size). Format Extension Notes JPEG JPEG2000.jpg.jp2 8

9 PNG TIFF.png.tif,.tiff Audio Formats Format Extension Notes AIFF Wave MPEG Audio.aif,.aiff.wav.mp3 Video Formats Format Extension Notes AVI Quicktime Motion JPEG 2000 MPEG-1 MPEG-2 MPEG-4.avi.mov.mj2.mp1.mp2.mp4 9

10 Appendix B: Peace Collection Collection Development Policy The Swarthmore College Peace Collection is a special collections library and archives collecting on non-governmental efforts towards peace world-wide. We collect, preserve, and make accessible, as far as possible, resources within our collection and our collecting area. Our collecting major areas include: religious and secular peace and pacifism, disarmament, non-violence, conscientious objection, women and peace, and anti-militarism. There are also significant holdings in the following areas: nineteenth and twentieth century peace movement, opposition to World War I, U.S. civil rights movement, the world-wide anti-nuclear movement, opposition to U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war, non-violent social change, opposition to wars in Central America in the second half of the twentieth century, opposition to the Persian Gulf wars from the 1990s to date, and social justice movements from the early twentieth century onward. The Peace Collection collects in all languages and formats. Formats include, but are not limited to: paper-based books, periodicals, documents, photographs, posters, and other items; electronic or digital files; audio visual recordings in a wide variety of formats, and memorabilia-small three dimensional objects, art works, and ephemera. 10