DOT Charge
Background:
The Digital Operations Team, originally formed in March 2009, was born out of a need to streamline the communication and decision-making processes at an operational level for digital library projects and the ongoing maintenance of the Dome system. Participants were chosen to represent specific roles in the overall project lifecycle. In the new organization, DOT is an IR cross-functional team that provides a centralized service across the Libraries for digital collections targeted for preservation and access via local repositories (Dome and DSpace@MIT) or external access providers. Reporting in AMES, its charge is now formalized as follows:
Membership:
Beverly Turner, chair; Carl Jones, Mikki Simon Macdonald, Jennifer Morris, Craig Thomas, Ann Marie Willer
Charge:
Reporting to the AMES Co-Head for Metadata and Enterprise Systems, the Digital Operations Team is responsible for the oversight, coordination, and integration of the functions and services used to create, manage, and provide access to curated digital library collections.
To accomplish their charge, the Team as a whole:
- Establishes and documents standards, best practices, guidelines, workflows, and procedures for creation and ongoing maintenance of digital collections
- Consults with project sponsors across the Libraries on budget, feasibility, and proposal development for potential digital collections, and with the Office of Scholarly Publishing and Licensing on rights issues and determinations
- Implements approved projects, working collaboratively with the project sponsor and other Libraries’ staff
- Coordinates or assigns responsibility for the intellectual control and physical processing of collections prior to scanning
- Assesses project processes and practices, and looks for ways to improve and standardize procedures
- Collaborates with the Program Manager for Scholarly Repository Services around DSpace@MIT’s collections and ongoing maintenance
- Documents their work both to track progress on projects and record the group’s activities, decisions, and recommendations
- Shares information relevant to the lifecycle of digital collections
- Recommends changes to the Dome system to improve functionality or enhance user and/or staff experience
In addition to these shared responsibilities, individual members of the Team have specific responsibility for maintaining and managing aspects of data and/or operations within their functional areas. Finally, members of the Team act in a liaison role with the other staff in their functional areas.
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DOT Operating Principles (DRAFT)
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- Collection development policies apply equally to both physical and digital collections. Collection Managers and Subject Specialists should feel confident selecting content for digital projects using their existing guidelines for physical items.
- Candidates for digitization might include the following:** items with unique content** items with content that is applicable to the MIT curriculum
- items that have MIT-specific access requirements
- items in fragile condition
- items for which there is current or anticipated heavy use
- materials in the DDC collection
- items which would be easier to use or for which use would be enhanced if presented online
- items associated with “triggers” such as an academic department’s anniversary
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