REPORT OF THE WORKING GROUP for DEVELOPING SELECTION CRITERIA FOR COLLECTIONS DIGITIZATION

BACKGROUND

Yale University Library has been digitizing material from its collections since 1993. These efforts have been both project-oriented as well as programmatic. Some units in the library have already established policies and guidelines for selecting materials for digitization (see the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Digitization Strategy: http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/brbl/digital/DigitizationStrategy.htm). Others have digitized materials on a regular basis for use by patrons or as part of their work.

In 2006, the Digital Production and Integration Program recommended that YUL create a list of collections and other library materials that would be ideal to digitize. This list is meant to help guide the development of greater capacity for digitization in the library. To that end, Ann Okerson, AUL of Collections, established a Digital Collections Selection Criteria Task Force. The Task Force was charged with developing “a set of criteria that subject specialist should consider when reviewing collections for digitization”. A second group will identify initial target collections based on these criteria.

This document is meant to help develop the list of collections for potential digitization and should also be helpful to other librarians at Yale in the future when considering digitization of collections.

In establishing selection criteria, we drew on the work of other research institutions (see Sources at the end of this document)

CRITERIA

The working group defined four general reasons for digitizing material.

1. Access
2. Preservation
3. Innovation
4. Outreach

A potential project need not touch all all four reasons.

ACCESS

• Digitization supports the teaching mission of Yale by providing material online for teaching and use in classrooms
• Digitization supports scholarly research by making sources more accessible and providing added value such as easy searchability.
• Digitization facilitates discovery of and enhances access to our rich collections.

• Digitization fulfills requests by our patrons for digital materials for publications, research, and teaching

PRESERVATION

• Access to digitized surrogates prevents damage to original materials
• Digitization may be a by-product of preservation activities and may be the only way some materials can be made accessible.
• Digitization may assist in keeping original materials secure, as the originals will not need to be handled as often.

INNOVATION

• Digitization should increase the technical knowledge of the library, raising our profile in the university and among our peers.
• Digitization of collections may encourage collaborative projects with other universities or faculty
• Digitization projects will assist the library in taking a leadership role among other research institutions in some aspect of digitization that is new or previously unsolved.
• Digitization projects should position the library to respond to university expectations of library services.

OUTREACH

• Digitization may promote outreach to professors, departments, and Yale research institutes, as well as outreach to support research needs of the university
• Digitization may support the teaching mission of the university
• The Library may digitize materials as part of our mission to scholarly communities both inside and outside of Yale
• Digitization can be part of the YUL mission to expand our international collections and work with international partners.

In addition to these four general reasons for digitization, the committee also defined criteria that will help selectors prioritize certain materials or collections to be digitized. Collections appropriate for digitization should have at least three of these criteria, or be very strong in two criteria.

PRIORITIZATION CRITERIA

1. Materials must have value, e.g.:
1. Research value and/or
2. Monetary value, and/or
3. Socio-cultural value, and/or
4. Political value of collection (such as for recruitment purposes)
2. The material should not have been digitized already, unless that version is inadequate.
3. Yale has the intellectual property rights to the material, will request permission to use the material as part of the project, or the material is out of copyright. If none of these conditions are met, Yale should be cautious about how we provide access to the digitized material and to whom.
4. Yale Library may have a prior commitment to digitization of certain collections, for a variety of reasons.
5. The material should be safely digitizable without damaging or destroying the originals.
6. Creation of a digital surrogate is considered a prudent preservation step either due to physical condition and/or value.
7. Material does not require extensive preservation work or the project allocates funding and/or staff time for preservation treatment.
8. The digital format will provide important added value, such as the ability to search across a large amount of material.
9. A patron requests the material for purposes of research, teaching, or study.
10. Funding for digitization is available.
11. Material does not require extensive cataloging work or the project allocated funding and/or staff time for cataloging or metadata work.
12. Pilots or proof of concept projects will be digitized in order to further assist in development of digital collections.
13. Individual items in a collection may be digitized if other criteria apply, but digitization of whole collections or subcollections or complete items (ie a whole book) is usually preferable for context and convenience.

SOURCES

Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Defining a Digitization Strategy for the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/brbl/digital/DigitizationStrategy.htm

Cornell University Library policy on Selecting Traditional Library Materials for Digitization: Report of the CUL Task Force on Digitization

http://www.library.cornell.edu/colldedv/digitalselection.html

Columbia University Libraries Criteria for Digital Imaging

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/digital /criteria.html

Selection for Digitizing: A Decision-Making Matrix

http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/hazen/matrix.html

10/12/06