"Cookbook" for Web-Based Government Information Collections
Andrew Hubbertz, from the University of Saskatchewan Library, has written a "cookbook" to help libraries build up local collections of web-based government information.
As Hubbertz writes in the introduction to the 15-page guide, the Web has become one of the primary ways used by government to disseminate information, but "(F)aced with the volatile, impermanent nature of the Web, libraries find they have little choice but to plunge into collecting Web-based government information".
The problem is the lack of established standards, tools and best practices. As well, most of the literature, Hubbertz explains, is written by digital collection development experts for other experts.
"Under the circumstances, what is needed is some basic guidance to help smaller institutions get started ... Every attempt has been made to encourage practices that are sound, viewed from a current perspective ... It is intended that a collection built along these lines will be of permanent value, even when the procedures outlined here are superseded by better ones."
According to the listserv of the Canadian Library Association's Access to Government Information Interest Group, the profiles of the libraries that have requested copies of the Cookbook so far break down as follows:
As Hubbertz writes in the introduction to the 15-page guide, the Web has become one of the primary ways used by government to disseminate information, but "(F)aced with the volatile, impermanent nature of the Web, libraries find they have little choice but to plunge into collecting Web-based government information".
The problem is the lack of established standards, tools and best practices. As well, most of the literature, Hubbertz explains, is written by digital collection development experts for other experts.
"Under the circumstances, what is needed is some basic guidance to help smaller institutions get started ... Every attempt has been made to encourage practices that are sound, viewed from a current perspective ... It is intended that a collection built along these lines will be of permanent value, even when the procedures outlined here are superseded by better ones."
According to the listserv of the Canadian Library Association's Access to Government Information Interest Group, the profiles of the libraries that have requested copies of the Cookbook so far break down as follows:
- Academic libraries (all post-secondary) 12
- Public libraries 4
- Government libraries (departmental/special) 33
- Legislative libraries 6
- Library & Archives Canada and provincial libraries 7
- Private law library 1
- Other (library school student, government department, etc.) 5
Labels: digital collections
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