Freely Accessible and Open Access Guidelines for Subject Specialists

Scope: The Duke University Libraries acquire, organize and deliver information resources that support the teaching and research needs of Duke University. These guidelines provide a framework for DUL Collections Services staff to make freely accessible and open access (FAOA) resources discoverable within the DUL collection. The goal of the guidelines is to make the process consistent and transparent for both Collections Services staff and subject specialists. The scope of these guidelines is limited to online resources hosted by third parties; digital content locally hosted by DUL is out of scope.  DUL Collections Services (DULCS) detailed process documentation is available here: FAOA Resource Management Guidelines

Contact: Abigail Wickes

Unit: Electronic Resource & Serials Acquisitions

Date last reviewed: 02/10/2021

Date of next review: 07/20/2021

The full guidelines are organized by format, and include online integrating resources (databases), ejournals, and ebooks. For all formats, requests for inclusion in the library's discovery services must be approved or suggested by the appropriate subject specialist. Collections Services staff will then assess whether or not the resource can be made available through our various discovery services.

If possible, approved FAOA resources will be activated in the knowledgebase. Activating a resource in the knowledgebase allows its contents to be discoverable within Summon if the resource is included in the Summon index. In addition, activation of an ejournal or ebook title in the knowledgebase means those titles will appear in the Online Journal Titles tool and that we will be sent a 360 MARC record for that title. 360 MARC records are batch loaded into Aleph on a weekly basis so that these titles will appear in the catalog.

DULCS will also create locally maintained bibliographic records for FAOA databases, if they meet our local criteria for cataloging. Due to the large volume of FAOA ejournals and ebooks, we cannot provide bibliographic records for them if they are not available via the 360 MARC service.

As FAOA resources often change without notice, we also developed maintenance schedules in order to better keep track of these resources. Regular review of FAOA resources included in our discovery systems should limit the frequency of patron access problems and ensure that information in our systems is current and accurate. Maintenance schedules differ according to format. Maintenance for FAOA databases will be proactive due to their limited number, following a document review schedule and requiring input from subject specialists on a biannual basis. Maintenance for FAOA ejournal titles and ebooks will necessarily be reactive due to the much larger volume of these titles.

Exceptions to these guidelines may be made on a case-by-case basis for resources that are Duke-specific and/or core resources in the discipline.

For more information on processes taken in DULCS, please see FAOA Resource Guidelines for Collections Services