Repurposing existing digital resources and smoothing interdisciplinary communication: Environmental Policy Collection development

Abstract

Given the proliferation of scholarly digital contents, it has become increasingly difficult for researchers to find relevant contents in their own, not to mention related, disciplines. The situation is even worse in interdisciplinary fields such as environmental sciences. Many academic libraries provide services to support the creation, organization, management, use, and reuse of digital contents. This poster describes the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries' initiative to provide digital infrastructure and stewardship in order to ensure long-term access to the resources collected. The preliminary results from usage and related statistics analysis suggest significant research and educational impact of the Environmental Policy Collection. Based on the University of North Texas Libraries' experience in integrating heterogeneous digital resources from diverse sources and providing seamless access, this poster will also provide guidelines for future digital collection development, and make recommendations for further study of collection development strategies.