KCResearch Collection Development Policy

The development and maintenance of this collection development policy serves to guide KCResearch librarians in identifying, evaluating and selecting items for the collection. It enables the staff to make informed decisions about acquiring appropriate material for the site, such that it does not conflict or compete unduly with other resources or institutions in the area. It also provides focus for the collections, allowing for thematic consistency. Such guidance in collecting ultimately facilitates more effective searching, and a higher rate of useful outcomes for users of KCResearch. This policy will also be used to assess the scope, comprehensiveness and relevance of items in the collection as it continues to expand.

To facilitate research, analysis, awareness, and discussion of issues important to the citizens and organizations of the greater Bi-State Kansas City region through the collecting and provision of relevant research materials in a centralized web portal. Through the development of this resource, KCResearch hopes to foster a rich environment of scholarly communication and civic involvement in the region.

In June of 2001, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation convened a research forum focused on growth and development issues in the Kansas City region. Because Kansas City is a metropolitan area rich in world-class research and information, and because more people are seeking information electronically, the research forum participants recommended the development of a web-based, searchable portal in order to democratize access to this high quality research and information. As a result, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), the School of Public Administration at the University of Kansas, The Center for the City at UMKC, the Henry W. Bloch School of Business and Public Administration at UMKC, and the University Libraries at UMKC formed a collaborative partnership to develop this web portal. Kansas City Public Library expressed an interest in supporting the development of the portal, dubbed "KCResearch." KCPL already had many of the necessary capabilities for creating and maintaining a research web portal, and this project fell in line with library programs currently under development. Thus the library agreed to become the fiscal and managing agent representing the partnership.

The goals of KCResearch include:

• Capturing and accurately representing the full scope of research activity in the Kansas City area via the World Wide Web.
• Becoming the primary resource for accessing regional research information.
• Increasing the visibility and usage of research content produced about the greater Bi-State Kansas City area.
• Providing opportunities for researchers to publicize and provide access to their work
• Highlighting Kansas City and the surrounding region as a premier research locale.
• Providing opportunities for scholarly communication, research collaboration, and informed discussion about issues affecting the Kansas City area

The primary audience for KCResearch includes anyone interested in research from the greater Bi-State Kansas City region for purposes of policy-making, advocacy, journalism, academic work, professional development, education, or personal interest.

The KCResearch librarians, with guidance from the KCResearch Advisory Board, are responsible for collection development. In addition, contributing partners, authors and the general public may submit material for consideration.

• Geographical coverage: Materials accessible through KCResearch offer a particular focus on the greater Bi-State Kansas City region on a variety of levels (region, state, city, county, local). The region is defined by the 18 participating ThinkOneKC counties*.
• Document Types: Selected documents should take the form of qualitative or quantitative research, rather than news items or opinion pieces. Appropriate documents include studies, articles, papers, dissertations, reports, surveys, polls, data sets, and maps from any time period, that rely on research initiatives conducted in the region.
• Topics: Subject areas covered by KCResearch should represent the diversity of issues important to groups and citizens in the Kansas City area. Topics such as economic development, demographics and statistics, public policy, the environment, health and medicine, transportation, business, arts and culture, and education are considered appropriate for inclusion. Materials whose focus is the history of the Kansas City area will be referred to Missouri Valley Special Collections or another repository as appropriate to be considered for inclusion in a local history collection.

All materials selected for inclusion in KCResearch undergo a review process by KCResearch staff. Research that meets the scope requirements will ultimately be deemed appropriate for inclusion if it meets one of the following criteria:

• Conducted and/or authored by faculty, staff, or researcher(s) through formal association with an accredited educational institution, or by a student under the direction of a university faculty/staff member.
• Sponsored by an accredited educational institution through funding, facilities, staffing, or other support.
• Created by a government department or agency (national, state, county, civic, consortial)
• Performed by an institution whose primary stated purpose is to conduct research, whether self-initiated or on a contract basis (e.g., research institutes).
• Created by a Kansas City area community group, non-profit agency, private company, or independent researcher whose mission and research methodology is readily available or clearly evident.

KCResearch will make every effort to ensure the accuracy of the research in its collection. However, responsibility for accurate data ultimately rests with the institution generating the document. KCResearch recommends all contributors have a means of collecting information regarding the content accuracy and a policy for the review and revision of the material.

Though KCResearch is primarily an English language resource, materials in all languages will be considered.

KCResearch staff will locate material for consideration in several different ways:

• Searching of high quality public and subscription databases.
• Visiting web sites of eligible organizations.
• Automatic harvesting from the Web using focused crawls.
• Personal contact with eligible organizations.
• Suggestions from authors, citizens, and users of the site.

KCResearch provides access in three ways:

• Linking directly to a document on an organization's own web site.
• Storing a document on our own servers. This method is used if no other stable archiving options are available and copyright permissions can be secured.
• A complete citation, abstract (summary), and instructions for accessing the complete version elsewhere. This method is used for items that cannot be included in their entirety due to copyright restrictions.

Materials added to the repository may include but are not limited to the following formats:

• Preferred document formats: Portable Document Format (.pdf), Microsoft Word (.doc), Microsoft Excel (.xls), hypertext Markup language/Web page (.html), JPEG (.jpg) and TIFF (.tiff) image formats
• Supported formats include the preceding list and: Real Audio (.ra or .rm), Windows video (.avi), Shockwave/Flash (.swf), Quick Time (.mov), Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF), Microsoft sound (.wav), MIDI (.mid), BMP, ASCII, GIF, MPEG video, Zip.

Materials will be removed from the collection on the following conditions:

• If hyperlinks make up important portions of the document and many of those links are broken, so as to compromise the document's usefulness.
• If the document is no longer hosted by the generating institution and KCResearch cannot secure an additional copy to host on our server.
• If the material is determined to have been based on misrepresentation, falsehood, or faulty research methods.
• If the owner requests its removal
• If the material is determined to violate copyright

KCResearch does not claim ownership of materials (i.e. metadata and images) in the repository, but operates under the principle of "shared access, local ownership" with ownership remaining with the originating institution or person. Institutions or persons may request that their materials be removed from the repository. A more detailed copyright statement is located on the KCResearch web site at http://www.kcresearch.org/cdm4/copyright.php

This policy will be reviewed annually by KCResearch staff.

• American Library Association. Core Elements of Electronic Resources Collection Development Policies"
• International Federation of Library Associations & Institutions. "Guidelines for a Collection Development Policy Using the Conspectus Model"
• Dartmouth College Library."Guidelines for Writing Collection Development Policies"
• New Jersey Digital Highway. Collection Development Policy
• North Carolina Exploring Cultural Heritage Online. Access to Special Collections Project – Portal Collections Development Policy
• Colorado Digitization Program. Collection Policy

*In Kansas: Atchison, Douglas, Franklin, Johnson, Leavenworth, Miami, Shawnee and Wyandotte counties. In Missouri: Buchanan, Cass, Clay, Clinton, Jackson, Johnson, Lafayette, Livingston, Platte and Ray counties.

June 2006 - C. Bachman / D. LaCrone
-last updated 12/6/06