Five questions to ask when building a digital library collection

Draft article: review and edit before publishing.

Digital collections have become central to how students and researchers find information. Before investing, it helps to step back and ask a few practical questions.

1. Who are your users, and how do they search?

Understand whether your users need remote access, mobile reading, or integration with course pages and discovery systems.

2. Which access model fits your budget?

Perpetual purchase, subscription, evidence-based acquisition and demand-driven models each suit different needs.

3. How will usage be measured?

Agree on the usage reports you need before you sign, so renewal decisions are based on evidence.

4. What about discoverability?

Make sure MARC records and metadata are available so new titles actually appear in your catalogue.

5. What support will you receive?

Training, onboarding and responsive support make the difference between a collection that is used and one that is forgotten.

Need help planning your collection? Talk to our team.