Open Access Resources by Subject

Open Access Collection Policy for the Patrick Power Library

The purpose of the Open Access Collection Policy is to provide selection criteria and local access guidelines for free electronic resources.

General Selection Criteria

1. Resources should be freely accessible and not require a password, registration, or a subscription.

2. Content should be of scholarly value, credible, and accurate. Consider the following questions:

• What is the scope of the content?
• Who is the intended audience?
• What is the purpose of the site?
• Is the site up to date?
• Who is the author?
• Is the author likely to be authoritative

3. Sites should be judged to be permanent and have stable, working URLs.

Access Procedures

Recommendations may be submitted using the form on the homepage, or in an email to Allison Watt (allison.watt@smu.ca). Collection Liaisons also may add subject resources to the LibGuide.

Depending on the resource, the Open Access Collections Committee will:

• Add the electronic resource to the Open Access subject resources LibGuide.
• If appropriate, forward the recommended resource to the Cataloguing and Metadata Systems Department to be catalogued.

• If appropriate, forward individual e-journals to be added to SFX to Acquisitions Services.

Each catalogued resource or journal added to SFX will be documented on an Excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheet will include the title, URL, source of referral, and date entered to the file.

Ongoing Evaluation and Maintenance

Ongoing evaluation and maintenance of Open Access LibGuides will be carried out by members of the Open Access Collections Committee. Catalogue links and journals listed in SFX will be updated as needed by staff in the Cataloguing & Metadata Department or the Acquisitions Department