SPEC Kit 341: Digital Collections Assessment and Outreach · 87
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
Selection Criteria for Digital Library Projects
Selection Criteria, page 1
Selection Criteria for Digital Library Projects at
Northwestern University Library
The mission of Northwestern University Library is “to provide information resources and services
of the highest quality to sustain and enhance the University’s teaching, research, professional, and
performance programs.” To fulfill this mission in the digital age, Northwestern’s library relies
increasingly on electronic resources: not only those acquired through purchase and subscription,
but also those created through an ambitious and robust program of digitizing our own remarkable
and often unique collections.
This program, managed by the Digital Collections Department but involving staff across the entire
Library, seeks to take full advantage of advances in web-­‐based data organization, display, and
analysis technologies of the increasing convergence of preservation and access agendas and of the
special expertise of our own staff, of other partners on campus, of Northwestern faculty, and of our
relationships with other institutions, consortia we belong to, and corporate partners.
Although our digitization efforts will frequently address needs within our own community,
increasingly we are also taking into account research and learning needs of a regional, national, and
international community of students and scholars. We must also plan our digitization priorities to
avoid duplication, in whole or in part, with existing and planned projects of other research
institutions, consortia, and commercial publishers. Finally, we must take into account the
limitations placed upon our planning agenda by the evolving legal environment governing
copyright and intellectual property—even as we vigorously assert our rights on behalf of ourselves
and our user communities.
The significant financial and staff resources required to mount and sustain digital library collections
mean that a careful selection must be made from among many desirable proposals. What types of
projects do we encourage library staff and Northwestern faculty to propose? How do the factors
touched on above affect the desirability and feasibility of project proposals? Here are the chief
criteria for selection applied by Northwestern University Library’s Digital Projects Committee when
considering new proposals—roughly, but not necessarily, in rank order of importance.
Proposal Criteria
Intellectual Value and Distinctiveness: Northwestern University Library houses many distinctive
collections in many different formats—text, still and moving image, audio, and all possible
combinations of these formats. Proposals for digital library projects should make clear the
intellectual and scholarly value of the materials involved and also set forth the value that will be
added by making these resources available as a digital library collection.
Existing Collection Development Priorities: Projects that promise to advance goals for library
collections will continue to be given the highest priority. These priorities can be curricular or
research-­‐oriented, be relevant to campus, local, regional, or worldwide constituencies.
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