5. Electronic Resources
For the purpose of this collection policy, electronic resources are defined as reference or indexing sources, either as full-text and/or as citations, which require digital access by device. The Collection Development Committee makes recommendations to the Library liaison librarians, which collectively vote on new acquisitions. Electronic resources are subject to contracts negotiated with the respective suppliers. Individual electronic journals are covered in a separate section (see 6 Serials).
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5.1 Guidelines for selecting electronic resources
- Speed and efficient access for users as compared to print version of material
- Cost-effectiveness (start-up and maintenance costs in relation to number of academic programs served)
- For resources of potentially limited use, IP authentication or single sign-on is preferred over account creation with individual usernames and passwords
- Ease of manipulation and usability
- For bibliographic databases, a high percentage of the titles found in the indexing/abstracting database should be owned by or be accessible to the Library
- Shelving space saved from physical forms of the database contents
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5.2 Additional criteria
- Accuracy and authenticity
- Scope and depth of coverage
- Historical perspective as well as the currency of data and content updates
