SDS Discussion Paper
November 5, 2001
To date, the SDS-Policy Committee has been considering the various
activities that constitute "collecting." In other words, what does it mean
to collect in a library? In this regard, we have identified the following
broad categories of activities involved in collecting
§ Discovery
§ Selection
§ Acquiring
§ Preserving
§ Description, Access, and Control
§ Deselecting
We have covered all of these with regard to traditional collecting, but
have now paused with the analysis of digital selecting, as we have
concluded that the evaluation of "usability" within the context of the
digital appears in itself to embody many of the challenges that digital
works present library collecting.
Control and Responsibility
The essential charge of the Policy Committee is to recommend policy for
library collecting of digital works. These recommendations will necessarily
need to make recommendations concerning what it means to collect digital
works. In making this determination, it will be necessary, I think, to
establish a set of ideal objectives, and then to evaluate, with the
technical committee, the extent to which these objectives can be met within
the constraints of the current experiment. Following the determination of
realistic objectives, appropriate policies that will facilitate meeting the
objectives will need to be determined.
An essential consideration in determining realistic objectives will be the
extent to which we can control what is collected. In order to carry out the
activities necessary to meet objectives in a reliable, consistent way, we
will need to control works collected. Such control need not be thorough in
every possible detail, but at a minimum must be exercised over those work
characteristics needed to meet the objectives.
What follows, is a list of problem areas in the digital library
environment. It is offered as a starting point for discussion. The areas
are interrelated, and thus the separation is not to be considered normative.
Work Identification and Integrity
§ How does one define and identify a work? Texts, images, relational
databases, models, geographic information systems, interrelated media.
§ What role does the creator have in identifying works?
§ What role does the library have in identifying a work?
§ Can the library redefine what is and is not a work?
§ Does the work comprise one or more works (sub-works)?
§ Are sub-works collectable independent of the containing work? Does
the creator or library determine this? What rights does the creator have
in determining this?
Collecting and Control
§ Is a work considered collected if the library only links to it?
§ Or is a work considered collected when it takes control over the
file or files comprising the work?
Copyright
§ Is all or part of the digital work explicitly protected by creator
copyright?
§ Is all or part of the digital work explicitly protected by
copyright belonging to someone other than the creator?
§ Does the creator have digital rights?
§ Are the rights transferable?
§ What is the library's responsibility with respect to tracking and
enforcing copyright?
Authenticity: Intrinsic/Fungible Value
§ Does the work as a whole have intrinsic value, that is, both the
data (information content) and the data behaviors (look and feel)? [A good
example of this is the William Blake Archive]
§ Or, can the data be collected independently of the data behaviors,
and new, library determined behaviors associated with it? [A library
catalog might be a good example of this]
§ Does the creator, publisher, or library make this determination? Or
is it negotiated with the controlling creator or publisher?
Persistence
§ Is the data comprising the work based on (open, public) standards?
§ Are the data behaviors based on standards?
§ Are all files comprising the work controlled and transferable by
the creator?
§ Are links between resources comprising the work based on standards?
Are links embedded in the data representation? Or are links maintained
independently?
§ If a work is ongoing, is the library responsible for providing real
time access where this is critical to the utility of the work?
§ If links to an ongoing work exist in other collected works, is the
library responsible for maintaining versions of the ongoing work in order
to maintain the integrity of the link? For works not collected to works
collected?
§ If a work is collected in successive editions, is the library
responsible for persistent identification of these works (and sub-works,
and work sub-addresses) when there are links to them in other works under
collection control? Or in works outside of collection control?
§ When successive editions of a work are collected, are editions
interrelated? If successive editions of works comprising sub-works are
collected, are sub-works interrelated?
Editions/Versions
§ Is the work complete and static?
§ Is the work ongoing?
§ Is the value of the work dependent on real time access?
§ Can the work be collected in successive editions?
Bibliographic, Administrative, and Structural Control
§ What are the possible relationships between works/intellectual
content and files?
§ What responsibility does the library have for providing
intellectual control? File control? Maintain the relations between
intellectual and file control?
§ Is the library responsible for providing descriptive cataloging for
all works collected (involves both intellectual description, as well as
"physical description," that is file description).
§ When works contain descriptive data (metadata or cataloging)
supplied by the creator, will all, some, or none of this data be accepted
for inclusion in the library catalog? If some, what criteria will be used
to make the decision?
§ Who is responsible for administrative data? Structural data? What
is the difference, if any, between structural data and links between two or
more files in a work (see persistence above)?
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Daniel V. Pitti Project Director
Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities
Alderman Library University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia 22903
Phone: 434 924-6594 Fax: 434 982-2363 Email: dpitti@Virginia.edu
http://jefferson.village.virginia.edu
AREA CODE IS NEW EFFECTIVE JUNE 2001
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