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DLMG Content Working Group

Purpose

The purpose of the Digital Library Content Working Group (DLCWG) is to advise the Digital Library Management Group (DLMG) on needs and priorities for digital collections to support research, teaching, and learning at Dartmouth. The group is intended to provide support, information and coordination where needed for subject specialists and bibliographers who are developing and managing digital and print collections which are accessible through the Digital Library.

Membership

The members of the DLMG with responsibility for content, Barbara DeFelice and Jim Fries, will co-chair the group, which reports to the DLMG. The DLMG will provide input and guidance in the areas of acquisitions, cataloging and metadata, preservation, education, technology. The membership of the Content Working Group includes subject specialists representing a wide range of disciplines. Membership is for two years, at which point, there will be opportunity for turnover. The group will also work closely with others as needed, will establish task groups for projects, and will have additional members for periods of time on a project or topic basis.

Membership for 2003-2005

Barbara DeFelice, Co-chair
Jim Fries, Co-Chair
John Cocklin
Lucinda Hall
John James, Digital Publishing
Peggy Sleeth
Reinhart Sonnenburg

Charge

  1. Develop strategies for short and long term digital collection development and management for the Dartmouth College Library, including strategies for fiscal and institutional sustainability.
  2. Identify Library digital collection priorities for all resource types such as full-text, image, multimedia, audio, numeric, and geo-spatial data, and from all sources, such as published and unpublished, licensed or purchased, public domain, created by Dartmouth faculty, and/or digitized from Dartmouth collections.
  3. Provide a forum for information sharing and discussion of current trends and projects in the development and management of digital content locally, nationally and internationally; bring relevant topics and project ideas to the Digital Library Management Group for decisions.
  4. Provide advice and perspective from subject specialists on digital content needs based on Dartmouth College's research and teaching programs. Assess user needs for content and user satisfaction with the Digital Library content.
  5. Coordinate the evaluation of digital resources; assist with trials of products and information resources. In coordination with other departments, monitor vendor and publisher offerings, advertise trials to library staff and users where appropriate, and coordinate trial feedback.
  6. Provide a forum for library-wide discussion and information sharing about existing and new business models, trends in licensing, use of web logs and other kinds of use statistics, and policies and procedures for digital content acquisition, management and preservation.

Examples of work tasks and projects that the Content Group might undertake:

  • Develop a strategic plan for priority selection of specific resources, specific subject areas, and specific formats. This would include consideration of the balance of commercial and institutional content, shared collections across institutions, and what needs to be in place to achieve any desired changes in the current situation.
  • Current Awareness Services-review product options and how these are integrated in the DL.
  • E-Books: Review e-book collections available (netLibrary and the many others available now) for content (subject and scholarly or popular) and model of distribution and use; evaluation of netLibrary collections.
  • Print to digital transition for current materials and archives; assist subject specialists with analyzing the many factors that go into these decisions, including the economics, user behavior, discipline specific needs, nature of the material, use statistics, web logs etc. Revisit the principles for moving content from print to digital formats.
  • Content issues coming from the Library Interdisciplinary Council
  • Scholar’s Portal project implementation as it relates to organizing collections, choosing resources for collections, and issues regarding access to resources and collections in the SP context.
  • Digital and print dissertations
  • Plan for educational sessions for subject specialists and bibliographers regarding trends in digital collections, obtaining and using usage data to make collections decisions, running digital resource trials and other collections related processes.

Meeting Notes

Projects/Tasks/Initiatives

  • Scholar's Portal: identified collections and resources for inclusion
  • E-Books: assessing business models, distributors, collections of interest beyond our netLibrary collection
  • Trials space and procedures: worked with Acquisitions and Library Services to better organize, present, document, and manage product trials and information about trials
    Trial Set Up Page
  • Print to digital decisions: have had and will continue discussions in the group to assess our options, depending on publisher; Acquisitions Services input has been essential to better understand and assess our option
  • Reference Managers in the Digital Library: charged the RefMan group to review, update and improve access to these tools through the Digital Library and Education Program
    Report of the RefMan group to DLMG 5.19.04
  • Combined Desired Resources: identified resources requested, specified information needed for each resource, and developed an Excel spreadsheet to manage this information
  • Scholarly communication: group gave input to 2 presentations to the Council on Libraries; developed documents discussing aspects of scholarly communication; 3rd presentation is scheduled for early June; drafting a web site so we can better present issues in scholarly communication to the Dartmouth community
  • Dissertations, retention and management of print and digital theses and dissertations, as part of discussions regarding institutional repositories
  • Management of digital documents in general; need for a server for digital documents purchased by library

Upcoming:

  • Analysis/understanding of database use statistics
  • E-book vendors meetings and presentations
  • Further discussion of ways to organize collection development and management
  • Current Awareness services, both products and as part of the Digital Library services
  • Review of digital journal packages