University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The National Geospatial Digital Archives' Collection Development: Lessons Learned

Erwin, Tracey; Sweetkind-Singer, Julie; Larsgaard, Mary Lynette

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/13592

Description

Title
The National Geospatial Digital Archives' Collection Development: Lessons Learned
Author(s)
  • Erwin, Tracey
  • Sweetkind-Singer, Julie
  • Larsgaard, Mary Lynette
Issue Date
2009
Keyword(s)
  • Digital preservation
  • National Digital Information Infrastructure Preservation Program (NDIIPP)
  • Geospatial digital archives
Abstract
There are many similarities between building a geospatial digital archive and building a hard-copy map collection, and two major ones are the necessity to have a collection development policy and the amount of hard work required to seek out and acquire the resources. Two institutions, University of California at Santa Barbara and Stanford University, the initial partners in the National Geospatial Digital Archives (NGDA), chose to collect digital data that was in line with each library’s standard collection strengths and responsibilities. Collection development policies were written for the project as a whole and for each partner institution. While based on traditional paper map policies, these geospatial collection development policies are tailored specifically for digital data by including sections on metadata, versioning, file formats, proprietary formats, data set size, and ownership/access considerations. During the acquisition phase of the contract a considerable amount has been learned about file formats, data acquisition of compressed vs. uncompressed files, short-term storage prior to repository ingest, and metadata creation. While metadata creation at the collection-level/series-level has been relatively easy the acquisition phase has underscored the challenges inherent in creating accurate item-level metadata. One of the central findings of the NGDA experience is that format information is vital for long-term preservation. Thus, the need to understand file formats and specifications has led to the creation of a format registry specifically for geospatial materials.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ISSN
0024-2594
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/13592
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2009 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

Owning Collections

Library Trends 57 (3) Winter 2009: Library of Congress NDIIP Program PRIMARY
Library Trends 57 (3) Winter 2009: Library of Congress NDIIP Program. Edited by Patricia Cruse and Beth Sandore