Selection Criteria

University of Rhode Island Libraries

Digital Initiatives Unit

Selection Criteria for In-House Digitization

Digitization Projects

Potential digitization projects will be evaluated and selected at the collection level, according to the following criteria:

• Uniqueness (top priority)

  • The content is not already available on the Internet

• Use (top priority)

  • Digital access will be valuable to users, based on a record of use of the physical materials or use of similar digitized content

  • Access to the content would be immediately valuable to the URI community (e.g. use in courses, featured for special events, administrative use, etc.)

  • We can provide public, open access through DigitalCommons@URI or another system

• Preservation:

  • Material is in imminent danger of physical deterioration

  • Content is valuable but inaccessible due to obsolete format

• Copyright and IP:

  • The content is in the public domain, or URI holds the copyright, or we have permission of the copyright holder

  • There are no other IP and/or privacy concerns

• Feasibility:

  • We have the capacity (equipment, staffing, expertise) to digitize and describe the material internally

  • In-house digitization is more cost effective than outsourcing

  • The material is in good enough condition to be digitized

On-demand digitization

Patrons can request a digital copy of archival material through Archives & Special Collections. These requests will be accommodated and prioritized, provided that:

• We have the capacity to digitize the material internally (in terms of equipment, staffing and time commitment)

• The material is in acceptable condition to be digitized

• Payment for all services rendered has been provided by the patron

Larger or specialized requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis as part of a digitization project.