North Carolina ECHO - Collection Development Policy

All of North Carolina's cultural institutions work together to make the state's unique cultural and historical resources accessible for the education and enjoyment of people of all ages in the state, the nation, and the world.

Purpose of the ASCWG Portal

The purpose of the ASCWG portal is to provide a single point of entry for the citizens of North Carolina to the unique resources of North Carolina's cultural institutions in order to enhance education and learning.

Sites Linked by the ASCWG Portal

The ASCWG portal will link to a Web site if it meets the following criteria:

Represents the digitized resources or finding aids in North Carolina's cultural institutions
Makes Internet resources available at no cost to the public
Demonstrates commitment to the principles of the Access to Special Collections Project by applying the Project's standards and guidelines
Ensures that materials are in the public domain or cleared for public distribution
Has a plan for ongoing sustainability of the Web site

Ownership

The ASCWG portal team does not claim ownership of digital objects or finding aids. Ownership remains with the originating site.

Accuracy of Data

Responsibility for accurate data rests with the institution distributing the digital content. The ASCWG portal team does not warrant any information on the sites linked to by the portal. The ASCWG portal team recommends that all sites have a online means of collecting information regarding the content accuracy and a policy for the review and revision of the site.

Accessibility of Sites

The portal site will strive to comply with the accessibility standards developed as part of the Web Access Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium (http://www.w3.org/WAI/). While the ASCWG project encourages compliance with these standards, the ASCWG portal team does not guarantee that sites linked by the portal will comply with these or other accessibility standards.

Removal of a Site from the ASCWG Portal

From time to time, the ASCWG portal team may remove the link to a site for one or more of the following reasons:

The site is not consistently and reliably available
The resources are no longer viewable at no cost
The site fails to comply with the principles of the Access to Special Collections Project or its standards and guidelines
There is evidence that the site's content is not accurate or reliable
There is evidence that the site has violated copyright

A request to appeal the removal of a site from the ASCWG portal can be made using the generic help form available on the ASCWG portal site. Links to sites will be reinstated if problems are resolved. In all cases, the ASCWG portal team will be the final arbiter.

Policy Review

Until a more formal governance structure for the ASCWG portal is established, this policy will be reviewed by the Access to Special Collections Work Group on an annual basis.

Definition of cultural institutions

Any cultural institution (library, archive, museum, historic site, or organization), which maintains a permanent, non-living collection of unique materials held for research and/or exhibit purposes and open for the use of the public will be surveyed. Denominational/associational collections will be surveyed, but individual church collections will not. Art museums will be surveyed but galleries will not. Zoos, arboreta, and parks will not be surveyed, unless as a part of their mission, they hold collections described above.

North Carolina ECHO, Exploring Cultural Heritage Online, http://www.ncecho.org, is the World Wide Web doorway to the special collections of North Carolina's libraries, archives, museums, and historic sites.

The NC ECHO project is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources (a state agency). Lisbeth C. Evans, Secretary, www.ncculture.com.

This innovative and collaborative project seeks to build a statewide framework for digitization in order to facilitate deep, wide, and comprehensive access to the holdings of North Carolina's cultural institutions. NC ECHO is sponsored by the State Library of North Carolina in cooperation with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Questions and comments may be directed to the NC ECHO staff.