Collection building

Collection building is a process conducted over time that builds and shapes a collection into a balanced, cohesive and sought-after set of user materials. Collections are groups of resources (activities, modules, annotation, etc.) organized around a theme, organization, topic, audience, learning strategy or some criteria that can be articulated. Good collection building involves

• Assessing the information needs of users
• Analyzing usage statistics and demographic projections
• Formulating and articulating of selection criteria
• Making plans for resource sharing
• Developing a well-defined cataloging plan; that is collecting the URL, title, description and other information about a resource
• Maintaining metadata and resources for library
• Exposing the collection to library users
• Maintain relevant collection policies and guidelines

Create a DLESE collection

To create a DLESE collection, start with contribute a collection.

See DLESE collection polices

In the left-hand menu are links to DLESE collection policies, guidelines, scope statements and best practices.

Milestones

• September 2005 - accessioned 1 new collection into DLESE
• June 2005 - beta release of the DLESE Collection System (DCS)
• June 2004 - accessioned 6 new collections into DLESE and NSDL
• May 2004 - release of the Contribute a Collection document and the Collection Builder's Guide
• April 2004 - updated collection policies and guidelines based on collection building and accessioning experiences
• September 2003 - release of a Collections Management document
• July 2003 - link checking reports avilable over all collections and to collection builers
• June 2003 - accessioned collections for the first time (14 of them) using the ADN and annotation metadata frameworks and the Collections Accessioning Taskforce; the collections were accessioned in DLESE and NSDL
• March and June 2003 - collection/quality community meetings draft DLESE Reviewed Collection Best Practices
• Spring 2003 - tested draft collection polices in actually working with collection builders

Last updated: 2005-12-08
Maintained by: Katy Ginger (support@dlese.org), DLESE Metadata

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