Statement of Principles Guiding Purchase of Electronic Products
The following principles are to be applied when evaluating electronic products for purchase.
Mandatory features
1. Cost effectiveness
- Access to electronic information via the service should provide value for money.
- Access is free at point of use.
2. Adherence to Collection Development Policy
- The service should add to the Librarys strengths in social sciences and humanities and be consistent with the Collection Development Policy.
- Percentage of titles which match the Librarys current holdings.
3. Licence conditions
- Terms and conditions for access should meet the Librarys
mandatory requirements as outlined in Statement of principles guiding
licence negotiation for National Library of Australia. These requirements
include:
- the ability to provide document supply
- the facility to measure use and provide reports to the Library on a regular and timely basis
- IP address authentication or other seamless mechanism for authorisation.
4. Access via connection to publishers or aggregators sites.
- 2.The Library will not host datasets.
5. Ease of use
Desirable features
6. Persistence
- 1.The service should manage for persistence.
7. Continuity of access
- Includes stability of content, number of titles with embargo periods, timely loading of data etc.
8. Perpetual access
- The service should provide the Library with perpetual access to electronic information to which it has subscribed.
9. Access after cessation of subscription
- It is preferable that access should continue to be provided through the online site, rather than in CD-ROM or other format.
10. Packaged service
- The service should provide access to a package of titles to reduce the need for the Library to manage multiple individual subscriptions and licences.
11. Full Content
- Prime emphasis is on full content with the resource directly and simply accessible to the user, ie. complete journal title not simply individual articles.
12. Intellectual Content
- The electronic version should contain at least the same intellectual content as the print version.
13. Direct links to catalogue record
- The service should provide the means to enable the Librarys catalogue record to link directly to the title described rather than a generic page for the electronic resource.
14. Cataloguing records
- Preference may be given to a service which offers bibliographic records and bibliographic updates as part of its service.
15. Remote access
- The service should provide the facility for use by offsite users should this be negotiated by the Library
