Selecting the material your institution will steward, perhaps indefinitely, is probably the most important step in managing born-digital content. It is from these decisions that all other things will follow. Luckily, there are decades of theory and practice around collection development and archival appraisal that can guide your own selection decisions. In this chapter, we review the various types of born-digital content you may acquire; different factors that may influence your collecting decisions; and approaches for developing a mission- and policy-driven collecting strategy. We also take a look at an approach for expanding traditional gift agreements to include born-digital content, and explore Stanford University's guidance for selection procedures for web archiving.

Types of born-digital content

Because born-digital content is any record or information that was created in digital form, it can come to libraries and archives in a number of ways and in various formats. When it comes to deciding which content to collect, born-digital content is not all that different from paper-based content. There are a few differences you should consider, however.

First, you have to keep in mind that digital content will require a greater commitment of time and resources to preserve and provide access to over time. In most cases, it will require you to establish a new or improved technological infrastructure to host the content. If your institution is already invested in managing digital content and you already have strong relationships established with those who manage your technological infrastructure and storage, this could be relatively simple. Often, however, this can involve establishing new relationships with information technology (IT) managers and negotiating for their time, expertise and other resources to be allocated to managing your digital content.

What all of this boils down to is that your institution's ability to commit to the long-term preservation and access of born-digital content strongly affects your appraisal and selection of that content. While some guidelines for collecting decisions state that format should not have a bearing on appraisal and collection, you and your institution's preparedness to manage and protect born-digital content may affect your decision to collect it.