Developing Digital Collections

The Digital Services unit leads the development of criteria and processes for the selection and prioritization of digitization efforts. These efforts are focused on sustainable and ethical methods for digitization and digital collection development. The Digital Services unit also oversees the digitization workflows and resources and labor related to digitization.

In addition, the Digital Services unit is responsible for the Web Archives program and leads development of the overall Web Archives collection to support the preservation of GW’s web presence and collection development related to GW LAI’s Specialized Collections.

Digitization Criteria

The goal of the digitization program is to provide richer access to more materials to broader audiences, with the corollary that a strong digitization program will support the strategic goals of the Libraries and the institution. To this end, the following categories of criteria have been identified for use in the selection of materials for digitization. They reflect many of the same factors used in collection development and preservation decision-making processes.

Regardless of specific priorities, the foremost consideration in selecting materials will be impact, including both the potential benefits of digitizing an item or collection, as well as the potential risks of not digitizing materials. The criteria for selection emphasize value, use, access, preservation, economy, continuity / critical mass, collaboration, and development.

Value

  • Materials of high use value to diverse audiences, collaborators, and community partners.
  • Materials likely to be of high public interest, as identified through online use statistics and reference statistics.
  • Materials of regional significance that document Washington, D.C. and Foggy Bottom.
  • Collections of distinction: materials or collections that are subjects of strength at the George Washington University Libraries.
  • Materials not well-represented in other digital collections or projects at GW or other institutions.
  • Materials of significant educational value to students and faculty at GW; materials that meet regional, national, global research, teaching, and e-learning needs.
  • Unique or rare materials.

Use

  • Materials that present few legal or other barriers to full public online sharing.
  • Materials known to have high use, or high potential for use once they are digitized.
  • Materials for which a digital surrogate has been explicitly requested.

Access

  • Collections that promote open access to the University’s unique and distinct collections.
  • Materials of value to open access scholarship.
  • Materials or content that would benefit significantly from value-added enhancements, such as search capabilities, text manipulations, interpretive commentary.
  • Materials that would benefit from the linking of geographically dispersed originals.
  • Materials of potentially high interest to users who are geographically remote; material that would not otherwise be available to its primary audience or stakeholders.
  • Materials that have yet to be digitized and made openly available by a trusted digital repository; materials that have digitized but the available surrogate contains errors or other quality issues that affect use.
  • Materials for which digitization will increase usability for users with disabilities.

Preservation

  • Materials which are too fragile or damaged to be handled safely by patrons.
  • Content that is at immediate risk for loss due to the inherent instability of the format or format obsolescence.
  • Content that is scarcely held in print format nationally or in WorldCat and has not been converted to digital format and managed in a publicly accessible digital archive.

Economy

  • Materials with a high ratio of impact to cost.
  • Materials that can be digitized at scale or in bulk, or otherwise through efficient means.

Continuity/Critical Mass

  • Collections or materials identified for collaborative projects with other institutions.
  • Collections or materials identified to contribute to a shared digital corpus.

Development

  • Collections or materials with known potential to attract donors and support Library Development.
  • Collections or materials with the potential to receive support through grants and other forms of external support.