Collection+Development

=__COLLECTION DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES__=


 * I. Scope**

The Reality TV Time Capsule seeks to make permanently accessible specific digital artifacts that provide evidence of, and insight into the association between reality television and web 2.0 technology, as well as how the combination impacted and reflected our society intellectually, commercially, and creatively. A team of four members was tasked with collecting Web content and preserving it in a standardized format.




 * II. Collecting Policy**

Before the determination of individual artifacts began, the team separated reality television into three genres, based on their general characteristics: Voyeuristic, Documentary, and Competition. Within these categories were multiple subgenres based on more specifically delineated characteristics. Each team member was assigned specific areas of responsibility for which to obtain five artifacts. The team selected artifacts which ranked highly on the following list of general criteria:

> 1. Usefulness in serving the current or future informational needs of researchers > 2. Uniqueness of information provided > 3. Relevance to the scope of the project > 4. Utilization of web 2.0 technology in creation and/or preservation, including social networking platforms, shared images and video, blogs, wikis, hosted services, and web applications. > 5. Amount of information provided > 6. Overall aesthetic experience during viewing or interacting

Suitable artifacts were then examined for adherence to more specific characteristics:

> 1. Content: Artifact provides an example of a specific genre or subgenre of reality television. > 2. Topicality: Artifact demonstrates, to some extent, the manner in which reality television permeated society. > 3. Original form: Artifact was either originally published on the web (“born digital”) or a digitized version of a resource published in an analog format. > 4. Access: Artifact was freely accessible or available to the public > 5. Format: Artifact existed in, or was converted to, a non-proprietary file format, in accordance with specific ISO/IEC standards as detailed under Access > 6. Language: Artifact originated in American English.

Beyond these criteria, each team member utilized individual judgment in artifact selection, which were then presented to the team for review.


 * III. Acquisition and Preservation**

Team members made deliberate attempts to collect a variety of media from select web sites or seed URLs. When possible, the artifacts were uploaded directly to the wiki, in order to maximize continuity and preservation. Due to space restrictions, this was not possible for every artifact, necessitating some links to external content. Despite the risk of losing resource integrity, the whole of the original digital object was often not collected. Individual parts were harvested and archived if they met the selection criteria.