Collection Policy

Collection guidelines for the Center for Rural Affairs “Beyond the Walls” Digital Library

A.  Introduction

1. Mission Statement

The mission statement of the Center for Rural Affairs “Beyond the Walls” collection is to digitize the archived materials from the organization’s history and make them available to its constituents. The CFRA would like to not only preserve its collection of newsletters, project reports, grants, legislation, reports conference minutes, direct service work (business workshops with farmers) and policy documents, but also to make them available to individuals and agencies across the country. The goal of the CFRA is to protect and support rural America, farming practices, environment issues and rural development across the Midwest United States. By creating this digital collection, it is our goal that the organization will not only be able to preserve these valuable resources from their history, but also be able to expand access to areas that would not otherwise be able to utilize the materials. By putting them online, the resources will be accessible for rural areas across the country and the CFRA will be able to expand their area of support.

2. Purpose

This policy will contain the guidelines for use by the current CFRA staff, interns and volunteers, as well as future contributors to the expansion of this collection. The policy will include all aspects of the collection, including material selection, technical aspects, maintenance and upkeep and metadata standards for organizing the collection.

3. Audience

This policy is designed for those involved in the creation and upkeep of the “Beyond the Walls” digital collection. This includes, but is not limited to, CFRA staff, interns, volunteers, students and anyone else interested in the curation of this collection.

4. User Groups

The primary user group for the “Beyond the Walls” collection will be the people of rural communities in the greater Midwest region as well as anyone interested in farming, green energy, rural healthcare and community development. Currently, the CFRA works with communities in the states of Alaska, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin & Wyoming. However, by making the collection available online, communities across the globe will have access to the resources.

B.  General Statements

1. Focus

The focus of this project is the selection and digitization of archived monthly newsletters for the years 2007-2012 issued by the CFRA. The newsletters will be scanned and uploaded to Omeka.

The newsletters are analog materials with no born digital materials that will be included in the collection.

Selection and Digitization of Materials

Criteria for Inclusion

• Items for which the CFRA holds the copyright
• Items that were created for public viewing
• Items that are in high demand by the patrons of the CFRA
• Items which reflect the goals of the CFRA including sustainable agriculture, rural community development, clean energy and healthcare

Criteria for Exclusion

• Items that were not created by the CRFA
• Items that were not available to be digitized due to damage to the material
• Items which the CFRA does not hold copyright to

2. Resource Types

The types of materials in the collection will include, but are not limited to, newsletters, project reports, legislation documents, annual reports, workshops, conference minutes and policy documents.

*The initial focus will be on newsletters.

3. Languages

Materials included in the collection will be in English,  to be amended as the collection grows.

4. Formats

Materials included in the collection will be in print format.

5. Funding

The costs for the digital collection will be kept to a minimum as the CFRA is a non-profit organization. When possible, free hardware and software will be used for the collection. Any costs required by this project will have to be approved with funding determined by the CFRA staff. Depending on future growth of the collection, this section may be amended as necessary.

6. Maintenance

The collection will be maintained by the staff, interns and volunteers of the CFRA.  Ongoing and future preservation policies and updates will be determined by the CFRA.

7. Collection Size

The ultimate size of the collection is unknown, as materials will continue to be added as the CFRA continues to grow and produce information. A future possibility is the combination of materials from the two separate locations in Lyons, Nebraska and Iowa State University Library in Ames, Iowa into a comprehensive digital library collection.  The center currently holds a vast collection of materials that will be digitized and added to the collection. New material created by the center (such as the monthly newsletter) will be included in the digital collection as they become available.

8. Special Requests

Special requests to view, handle, or license materials will be handled by the staff at the CFRA. Requests to donate materials to the CFRA will also be handled by the staff at the CFRA and curated through the digital library employed by the organization at the time of the donation.

C.  Guidelines for Metadata and Technical Infrastructure

Guidelines for metadata and technical infrastructure are evaluated in depth in two separate documents included in this project which are available on the group blogger.

D.  Policy Implementation and Revision Timetable

The policy can be adopted immediately upon the approval of the CFRA. The policy will be updated yearly or as needed by the curators, volunteers, interns, or staff members of the CFRA.

*Note: Adaption of the IFLA lettering system was necessary to implement the focus of this digital library.  Points included in further guidelines are covered in previous sections and are further addressed in subsequent documents.