Our database policy at Texas A&M is in the context of the LibGuides A-Z
list. We have both automatic and manual inclusion:

   - Process for Automatic Inclusion:
   - Electronic Resources Librarian will add all resources to the A-Z list
      automatically if the resource meets the following criteria:
         - Fits into one of the database types or is an article or A&I
         resource
         - Is a collection of items, not an individual item
         - Access is paid for by TAMU
      - Process for Manual Inclusion:
   - Selector contacts the Electronic Resources Librarian with the
      following information:
         - Name of Resource
         - URL to resource
         - Description to display to users
         - Subject association
         - Brief justification for inclusion (1-2 sentences)
         - Brief note on the stability of the resource (1-2 sentences)

There is than an annual review process for weeding.

Attached is the full policy.


Hope that helps,
Beth

--
Elizabeth German
Assistant Professor | Service Design Librarian
Texas A&M University Libraries
[log in to unmask] | 979-847-5846


On Wed, Mar 21, 2018 at 10:33 AM, Charlie Morris <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> We've been engaged in this specific thing at our libraries for the last
> several months in an effort to do some needed pruning. I asked around
> code4lib prior to this project and didn't find much so I'll be interested
> to hear from others. Here's what we came up with for a general definition
> of a database as a starting point:
>
> "Databases are search engines for curated scholarly information such as:
> *Journals and articles
> *Newspapers
> *Data sets
> *eBooks"
>
> We had a few others we've batted around but that's what we're settling on
> for now. Anything we pay a license for as the libraries is automatically
> added - the question is what free resources are added. To that end we've
> introduced Open Access status for our free resources. So, the free stuff we
> list as databases is deemed open access or we do something else with it. We
> happen to have an open access librarian  (new position) who is guiding this
> review process and we've created a form for staff to fill out if they want
> new items added and our OA librarian will review. In this review process
> (and it's still very new) we will be looking at things like legal issues
> (i.e., SciHub), size/importance, and then whether or not it matches that
> definition. Still early days, so this may all change!
>
> A decision tree document would be great, we may end up making something
> like this I think. I do know (nudge Dre) that NCSU has a decision tree kind
> of document for general web publishing, fwiw.
>
> -Charlie Morris
> Penn State University Libraries
>
> On Wed, Mar 21, 2018 at 11:13 AM, Charles Ed Hill <[log in to unmask]
> >
> wrote:
>
> > Hi everybody,
> >
> > Just wondering if anybody has some sort of policy or decision tree for
> what
> > does and doesn't get added to any kind of centralized library database
> > list, i.e. what, if any, freely available resources do you list. We've
> been
> > having some discussions internally and I was curious what others have
> found
> > makes sense/if there's any consensus.
> >
> > For reference, we are a mid-sized (~5,000 FTE) state academic
> institution.
> >
> > Thanks everyone!
> > Ed Hill
> > Systems and Digital Services Librarian
> > Westfield State University
> >
>