NOTE: The SP Collection policy has been revised as of May 2014. This page will be updated, but the new policy is restricted to OCUL members, so the below policy may remain in place for hisorical/informational purposes.
The revised Collections Policy can be found at:
https://spotdocs.scholarsportal.info/display/oculir/Scholars+Portal+Collections+Policy+-+Revised
Everything below this line is historical and probably outdated.
...
The following is Scholars Portal's Collection Policy, as approved by the OCUL Directors. The actual policy is located at:
...
- establishing a coherent rationale for the addition of each resource into SP, thereby meeting faculty and student information needs;
- providing orderly access and guidance to the digital resources, and integrating them into library service programs.
3. Striving for balance to be maintained among:
- disciplines;
- teaching and research tools;
- diverse requirements of user groups (i.e. undergraduate, graduate, faculty, clinical faculty);
- information formats (i.e. reference, abstracting/indexing, full-text, e-books, e-journals, data – both numeric and geospatial, etc);
- unique needs of each OCUL institution, while recognizing that local institutional collection development decision-making and practices must be respected.
4. Resources that offer economies of scale by benefiting the most students and faculty across OCUL will be taken into account.
5. Consideration will be given to loading digital resources which offer significant added value over print equivalents in such ways as:
- more extensive content;
- broader functionality, such as the ability to invoke linkages to local and/or related resources;
- enhanced access due to the fact that there can be universal, rapid, and remote delivery of content;
- improved resource sharing due to the ubiquity of digital resources;
- ease of archiving, replacing, versioning, and preserving.
- meeting accessibility requirements as described in the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005
6. Scholars Portal include content that supports undergraduate, graduate and faculty needs.
...
13. Open-access materials will be considered for inclusion in SP based on this policy.
Establishing Priorities
The following list represents Scholars Portal's priorities when loading new resources. The list offers a guide to their relative importance, but unsuitability by one criteria will not necessarily disqualify a resource that is otherwise suitable. In all cases, the final decision will be made through discussion between Scholars Portal staff and members of the OCUL-IR committee.
(1) Extent of commitment - Number of OCUL subscribers
(2) Demand - How heavily the collection is used
(3) Technical issues - How smoothly resources load and integrate into existing SP platforms
(4) Collections at risk - Is the collection at risk of disappearing or becoming otherwise inaccessible
(5) Geographical scope - Whether content is from Ontario or Canada
(6) Availability - How easily is it found elsewhere
Given the evolving nature of information resources, this Collection Policy should be tabled for review triennially by the OCUL Directors.
...