Collection Development Policy

Digitized Collections

The Digital Library of Georgia, working together with Georgia's libraries, archives, museums, and other institutions of cultural heritage, provides access to the cultural and historical resources of the state of Georgia through ongoing development, maintenance, and preservation of online digital collections and resources. Original formats included may be text-based, including manuscripts, letters, diaries, and published works such as books and pamphlets, photographs, maps, art, artifacts, audio and video, graphic materials including architectural plans and drawings, and microfilm.

The Audience of the Digital Library of Georgia consists of five segments:

  • Casual User - Similar to a museum visitor viewing an exhibit, or the library patron browsing the stacks, seeking general information, or recreational reading or viewing materials. Casual users are usually interested in browsing for information.
  • Student/K-12/Lifelong Learner - This group is usually seeking information for a specific purpose to support their learning goals, advance their career, or for general enlightenment. This group includes undergraduate and graduate college and university students and students in grades K-12, as well as teachers and instructors who may be using digitized resources in the classroom.
  • Information Seeker/Hobbyist - The hobbyist or information seeker desires more in-depth information on a particular topic. This group includes genealogists, amateur historians, and others who desire information on a narrowly defined topic or set of topics. This class of users is interested in searching for specific information.
  • Scholar/Researcher - The scholar or researcher desires in-depth information to support scholarship and research in support of scholarly publication.
  • Government/Business Community - The government or business community is interested in obtaining information to support government activities or business initiatives.

DLG Georgia Portal

The DLG Georgia Portal links historical and cultural collections digitized by the DLG and held locally in GALILEO with digital collections, materials, sites, items or similar resources held by cultural and/or other non-profit organizations throughout the state and elsewhere by means of metadata aggregation.

The DLG Portal Service will record metadata about and link to sites meeting the following criteria:

  • Provides digitized resources for collections representing Georgia's history and culture
  • Makes the resource available at no cost
  • Has a plan for ongoing sustainability and maintenance
  • Respects copyright by ensuring that materials are in the public domain or cleared for public distribution
  • Priority will be given to sites containing cultural materials digitized in accordance with standard best practices for digital imaging recommended by the Digital Library of Georgia

Ownership

The Digital Library of Georgia does not claim ownership of digital objects linked to from the DLG Georgia Portal. Ownership remains with the originating site. Note that collections digitized and mounted by the Digital Library of Georgia and GALILEO are linked to from the DLG Georgia Portal in the same way as other participating sites. All metadata created by the Digital Library of Georgia and included in the portal is licensed under a Creative Commons CC0 license, and users may reuse and share freely.

Accuracy

Responsibility for accuracy of data, facts, and information presented rests with the institution providing the digital resource. The Digital Library of Georgia does not warrant any information on the sites linked to by the portal. The Digital Library of Georgia recommends that all sites have a means of collection information regarding the content accuracy and a policy for site review and revision.

Accessibility

The Georgia portal strives to comply with accessibility standards developed as part of the Web Access Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium available at http://www.w3.org/WAI/. However, the Digital Library of Georgia does not guarantee that sites linked to by the portal will comply with these accessibility standards.

Removal Policy

A site may be removed from the Georgia Portal at the discretion of the Digital Library of Georgia for one or more of the following:

  • Site is not consistently available and reliable
  • Inaccurate data, facts, or information
  • Proven violation of copyright
  • Site or content is no longer available for free to the public

July, 2001
Revised September 2004
Revised February 2018