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Collection Policy Statement Index
This document has been updated and
replaced by:
Selection Guidelines for Electronic
Resources
I. Definition.
An "electronic resource" is defined as any work encoded and made available for access through the use of a computer. It includes both online data and electronic data in physical formats (e.g., CD-ROM). To avoid confusion with these terms as used in the copyright process, online will refer to intangible works; physical to a tangible work.
The term "acquire" refers to any electronic resource, online or physical, which the Library receives through its various, typical acquisitions processes, or which the Library provides access to through official contractual, licensed, or other agreements; any of these electronic resources may or may not be owned by or housed at the Library. "Collect" refers to electronic resources owned by the Library and selected for the permanent collection, including works created by the Library. It may also include works stored elsewhere for which the Library has permanent ownership rights. "Link" refers to pointers from the Library's internet resources or bibliographic records to the Library and non-Library electronic resources, created and maintained by Library staff for a variety of purposes; "link" is not an act of acquiring, and electronic resources linked do not necessarily constitute an acquisition by the Library.
II. Scope.
The Library collects materials in many formats to support its universal collections. This policy is intentionally general in order not to restrict the collecting of needed materials and to allow the Library to make these resources available as technology changes. It is the Library's policy with electronic works, as with all others, to obtain them through copyright unless they are not subject to deposit under sections 407 or 408 of the copyright law.
Selection of works for the collection depends on the subject of the item as defined by the collections policy statement for the subject of the work, regardless of its format. Formats include home pages, Web sites, or internet sites required to support research in the subject covered. The Recommending Officer responsible for the subject, language, or geographic area of the electronic resources is responsible for recommending these materials. Electronic editions of audio-visual materials, prints, photographs, maps, or related items are also covered by the Collections Policy Statements for their appropriate formats.
III. Criteria.
The criteria used to evaluate electronic resources do not greatly differ from those used for books or materials in other formats. As with more traditional formats (e.g., motion pictures and recorded sound materials), the cost of the work and the requirements of serving, cataloging, storing, and preserving must be considered in the decision.
The Library selects electronic works for its permanent collections which rank high on the following list of criteria: usefulness in serving the current or future informational needs of Congress and researchers, reputation of the information provider, amount of unique information provided, scholarly content, currency of the information, frequency of updating, and ease of access. Priority is given to resources containing information not otherwise available.
The Library will facilitate access to various kinds of electronic resources which it does not maintain in its own collections by means of bookmarked links, special catalog records, or index systems. Recommending Officers are responsible for identifying and recommending resources to be linked. The Library will not consider these resources part of its permanent collections and will not archive them.
In the case of digital works for which the Library has permanent ownership rights but which are stored in off-site repositories not under the jurisdiction of the Library, the Library will legally contract with the repository to make the works available electronically to the Library, ensuring permanent access or future transfer to the Library for archival storage, as in the agreement between the Library and the UMI Company concerning U.S. dissertations.
IV. Specific Guidelines:
Consider the following when making the decision to collect electronic works:
- Content. Give priority to items which will be of the greatest current or future use to Congress and or to the greatest number of researchers and staff.
- Added Value. If the material in electronic format is also available in print, the electronic resources should provide added value over its print equivalents, including timely access, lower costs, enhanced searching, or access from multiple workstations. The ability to make the resource available on a network among reading rooms in different buildings is a high priority.
- Ease of Use. The work should be easy to use, requiring minimum training. Documentation supplied by the vendor must be clear. Expensive items should be evaluated with an on-site pilot.
- Maintenance. The amount of support required by staff to make the resources available must be considered. The decision to collect resources requiring significant amounts of staff time to preserve, including migration to newer formats, must be weighed against the current and future scholarly value of the resources.
- Standards. The work should meet acceptable, commonly used technical standards, digital formats, and practices.
- Equipment. The work should operate on equipment and operating systems either currently or expected-to-be available. Resources requiring extensive, specialized, and/or expensive new equipment or storage space to make them available will be acquired only if the research value is indisputably high.
- Output. The work should provide convenient output to printers and/or users' files.
V. Retention.
The Library is committed to preserving its electronic resources just as it is to ensuring enduring access to its collections in print and other formats. When the Library collects both electronic and print (or microform) versions of an item, the Library will retain for its permanent collections the print (or microform) edition of an item, as well as the electronic edition.
VI. Computer programs.
The Library will select a representative sample of general purpose and application specific software and computer games for its permanent collection to document the history and development of this genre.
VII. Agreements.
- License Agreements. The Acquisitions Directorate is responsible for negotiating and administering all licensing agreements with publishers except for works received through copyright deposit.
- Deposit Agreements. The Copyright Office is responsible for administering special deposit agreements covering deposits of copyrighted works, either for copyright registration or mandatory deposit.
- Responsibility. Custodial divisions and others using the electronic resources are, to the best of their ability, responsible for ensuring compliance with all license and deposit agreements.
VIII. Review.
Given the rapid evolution of electronic resources, the Library will review this policy annually to ensure that it continues to serve the Library's current and future research needs.
June, 1999
