CONTENT: COLLECTION, ACCESS, AND MANAGEMENT

E. CONTENT: COLLECTION, ACCESS, AND MANAGEMENT

In the digital library, content and its management remains the single most important component of the library. The UCDL should comprise a three-tiered array of resources developed in a process integrated with academic program planning. Access should range from core content available for use anywhere, any time in the University of California to material that can be used “at your own risk,” “as is,” or for a privately paid fee by those who choose to explore cyberspace beyond the UCDL. In between should be material for which the UCDL takes only partial responsibility because the user base is limited or the owner cannot provide full access or support. For paper-based libraries, core collections are defined in terms of material that is considered to be essential for academic reasons; they comprise materials that are purchased, and choices about what to acquire are made on the basis of academic priority within budgetary constraints. In the digital environment, licensing and electronic document delivery mechanisms allow the additional possibility of providing access to academically important content by permitting users to pay for it on more favorable terms than individual users could obtain for themselves. Incorporating capabilities created by such unbundling, the UCDL should develop a core collection of fully subsidized, quality-filtered content available for uninhibited use by all UC users. An intermediate tier should consist of content for which the UCDL and users share responsibility for selection, payment, or both. Thus, content that is recognized as valuable but very expensive or needed by only a small group of users may be available on a fee basis, or content with lower academic priority may be available to those who wish to construct their own search and retrieval strategies. In addition, the UCDL should facilitate access to content residing outside its scope of responsibility. Criteria for designating what content should belong to the core and partially-supported tiers should be established with faculty and student guidance to serve the teaching, research, and public service priorities of the University. These criteria should include the likely number and distribution of University users and the importance of specific material for the field in which it is used. Content defined as belonging to the core collection should be maintained to the same standards as core paper collections, where appropriate. This would include appropriate cataloging, archival maintenance, uninhibited use for UC users, and printing capability. The UCDL should span print and non-print domains with links between the existing infrastructure of bibliographic access systems, such as Melvyl, and systems that provide bibliographic access to dynamic digital materials. In making collection decisions to allocate finite resources to the greatest institutional advantage, the UCDL should treat faculty and student time as the resource that must be most carefully conserved: access, support services, and preservation should be organized to enable faculty and students to find and use the information they must have most efficiently. Appendix D documents further substantial discussions by the Executive Working Group regarding complex content management issues.

F. INFORMATION POLICIES AND PROCEDURES