no.1838-DIGITAL RESOURCE EVALUATIONS FORMS

From: Paul Metz <pmetz_at_vt.edu>

I have no idea whether this will be useful to others, but in case it is . . .

We have some new money for trying to increase dramatically our access to
digital resources. We're looking at a very disparate range of options,
trying carefully to research publishers, aggregators, republishers (JSTOR).
To these apples and oranges we have added nectarines in the form of
bibliographic data bases, CARL Uncover etc., all of which at the end of the
day will be competing for the same dollars. In order to allow the task
force which is researching all these a means of making them at least appear
to be commensurate, we have come up with the following form, which tries to
take the salient aspects of any digital resource under consideration and
boil them down in a standard format allowing for comparability. Some of you
will notice its conceptual indebtedness to the California State University
"Principles." If this is useful I can also send it to anyone as a Word
document.


			   Elements Essential to the
			Description and Evaluation of a
			      Digital Resource




Name of Proposed Resource:

Provider:

General Description, Scope, Years of Coverage:


Anticipated Audience:



1. Suitability to Mission:


	Anticipated benefits to Virginia Tech:


	Negative features:


2. Costs and Pricing:

	Annual Cost:

	One-time Fees:

	Estimated Indirect Costs:

	What if anything do we know as a basis for projecting future costs?


3. Licensing:


	Number of Simultaneous Users:

	Excluded audiences, if any:

	Prohibited uses, if any:

	Means of authentication:



4. Functionality:

	Means of access:

	System reliability:

	Nonstandard, restrictive, undesirable hardware or software
requirements:

	Quality of user interface for beginners:

	Quality of advanced features:

	Training and/or documentation:


5. Archiving:

	To what, if anything, would we still have access should we cancel?

	Means of storing or accessing above:




Paul Metz, Principal Bibliographer, Virginia Tech University Libraries
           P.O. Box 90001 / Blacksburg VA / 24062-9001
Phone: (540) 231-5663   FAX: (540) 231-3694
pmetz_at_vt.edu