7 - Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research

Electronic Collections Collection Team
The complexion of evaluating and comparing electronic resources, especially in large
libraries or networks makes it difficult for one person to select materials. Hence an
electronic collections selection team may be able to do a better job. Members of this team
should possess both functional and subject area expertise. Having representatives from
technical services and systems will be especially advantageous when comparing similar
resources. An individual must be responsible for negotiating price and modifying signing
the license agreement. An additional person must be identified to interact with vendor’s
technical staff and be responsible for mounting new resources on the virtual library.
Before beginning the identification and selection processes the team should select
background information and formulate preliminary policies and procedures. It is both
expedient and wise to adopt polices and standards established by national and international
organizations.
Budget
The selection team should begin with a clear idea of the funds available for electronic
collections. To take advantage of the reduced pricing structures available through
consortia, the team should identify which professional systems are affiliated with the
library. These include national and regional library networks; city, country and state
educational systems, special interest groups for special libraries, professional associations
and statewide technology initiatives. Finally the selection team should contain basic
information on the hardware and software need to access the resources and existing
technology within the library. The cost of new technology must be considered in the
development of the budget for electronic resources.
Establishing the Types of Resources Needed
The selection team needs to determine the types of resources to be collected. A frequent
issue involves the replacement of print indexing and abstracting materials with online
versions. A second issue considers the licensing of aggregated full text databases or
journals that are only available online. The formats such as numerical and multimedia are
also to be determined. Libraries require an evaluation of resource even if it is available
(without cost) in the internet. However there is a cost associated with the time and energy
used by professional staff to evaluate, catalogue and maintain these “free” resources.
Establishing Workflow
After establishing a selection team, a budget, preliminary policies and the types of
resources to be considered, it is time to create the actual workflow process. The team
must determine what criteria will be determined for evaluation. Evaluation of resources
can be done making use of the free-trial offers. Published reviews of electronic resources
have become regular features in both scholarly and popular prices. Using trial access,
published reviews and vendor documentation the evaluation should be completed within a
given time frame.
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