106 · SPEC Kit 294
University of Alabama
http://www.lib.ua.edu/dpac/strategy.htm
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Digital Projects and Programs:
A Comprehensive Strategy
Revised September 2004
This comprehensive strategy provides general guidelines and principles for digital projects and
programs that involve the University Libraries at The University of Alabama.
This document will be made available to departments and programs at The University of
Alabama and to other institutions and groups who seek to initiate or join a collaborative
project or program with the University Libraries. This document will also be made available to
the general public and potential funding sources.
1. Purpose and Guiding Principles
The purpose of digital projects and programs at the University Libraries is to develop accessible
digital collections of materials that support the teaching and research of UA faculty and
students, and that, in turn, further the mission of The University of Alabama.
The University Libraries especially welcomes proposals that:
increase the value of materials by providing new forms of intellectual access to the
content of the works,
create additional research possibilities, such as virtual collaboration among scholars,
students, and cultural institutions of all sizes via the World Wide Web,
physically unite disparate collections of items relating to the history and culture of the
state of Alabama,
highlight materials of unique historical and cultural significance from the University
Libraries' collections, and/or
facilitate teaching and learning at the University of Alabama.
Selection for digitization requires, in most cases, that materials have enduring value and that
they form a significant research corpus. Short term projects will be evaluated on the basis of
their own merits. To the fullest extent possible, completed digital projects and programs will be
available to the general public via the World Wide Web.
2. Digitization and Preservation
The University Libraries has a commitment to the preservation of intellectual content for the
use of future generations. As part of that commitment, the University Libraries supports the
application of digital technologies to extend the useful life of materials at risk. ARL (Association
of Research Libraries) has endorsed digitization as an accepted preservation reformatting
option for a range of materials. As a member of ARL, the University of Alabama and the
University Libraries are committed to adhere to accepted standards and best practices in digital
reformatting and to establish institutional policies to maintain digital products for the long
term. The choice to use digitization, or any reformatting option, for preservation remains a
local decision. (See ARL's “Recognizing Digitization as a Preservation Reformatting Method”)
3. Legal Issues: Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights
The University Libraries will conform to U.S. copyright and intellectual property law, and follow
best practices of academic research libraries.
The University Libraries will consider digitization of materials which are either in the public
domain or for which copyright clearance or written permission for open access on the World
Wide Web has been obtained.
Any property rights related to digital collections created by the University Libraries shall be
those of The University of Alabama, unless these rights are otherwise protected by The
University of Alabama Faculty Handbook, Appendix H, “Determination of Rights in Copyrightable
Materials at The University Of Alabama.” The rights holder must specifically authorize secondary
or derivative use of digital files or collections. Secondary or derivative use of UA digital files or
collections may occur only after appropriate authorization has been requested and received.
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