Establish a Digital Collection Development Policy
Think about how digital projects fit into your organization’s collection development policy. A collection development policy outlines the types of materials your organization will collect and care for. It typically identifies the subject matter, geographic locations, time periods, type or formats of materials, and other factors that influence collecting decisions. If your organization already has a collection development policy in place, consider revising it to include digital content. If you don’t have an overarching collection development policy, the Wisconsin Historical Records Advisory Board (WHRAB) offers detailed guidance aimed at public libraries and local historical societies.
A Digital Collection Development policy typically includes:
- An overview of the organization’s mission, values, goals, and/or collecting strengths
- Subject areas, types or formats, geographic areas, and other factors that determine the types of donations you will or won’t accept
- How you will select materials to accept digitally or choose analog materials to digitize
- Date the policy is adopted
- Last date the policy is reviewed or approved
Digital Collection Development Policy Examples:
Legacy Projects
Some of us have the luxury of building a digitization project or program from scratch. Others, though, take on digital projects that were started by long-gone staff or volunteers, sometimes years or even decades prior to our own participation, and with scant meaningful documentation to help decipher the project work.
Some advice for wrangling an inherited project (or restarting a stalled one):
- Gather your documentation. Look for a mission statement, collection development policy, a grant proposal, a digital preservation policy, a project plan or budget, training manuals, emails or other communications related to the digital project – any documentation that might shed light on the work.
- Talk to people. Connect with current and former staff and volunteers. Find out as much information as possible about the project – its origins and history, successes, challenges, cost, staffing, expertise required to continue the work, and more. Document these conversations.
- Don’t delete anything (yet). Be careful not to delete images, data, or documentation that might be needed as part of the project or to inform your decision-making process. Save project-related materials until you know what they are and whether they should be retained.
Check out our Toolkit on Inheriting a Digital Project for more.
Resources and Tools
- Norton-Wisla, Lotus. “Collections Development Policy Worksheet.” Sustainable Heritage Network, July 2020.
- State Archives of North Carolina. “Policies.” [Video] YouTube, March 2021.
The Digital Readiness Toolkit and related resources were made possible in part by grants from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
