California Digital Library
Resource Selection Criteria

Resource Name:		
Vendor:		
Names of evaluator(s):		
Date: 		
Purpose:
To evaluate services and functions provided by the vendor. To aid the CDL, the Joint Steering Committee, bibliographer/selector groups, CDL Resource Liaisons and others in making decisions about:

1.	Acquiring new databases, especially those available from more than one vendor.
2.	Switching from one vendor to another.
Instructions: 
Please use the forms below to evaluate the database you are considering.  The Criteria used in the forms are divided into two sections, ranked as Critical or Important. Critical criteria must be met. Important criteria might be a loss if not available but we could live without them.

The following apply to the two fields you must fill in for each line item:
•	Meets Criteria—To fill in this field, choose one of the following options.
Yes, if the resource substantially meets criterion; use Notes to clarify.
No, if the resource does not meet the criterion.
N/A, if the criterion does not apply to the resource.

•	Notes by evaluator—This space for notes will expand to contain your comments regardless of length.  Please be specific in your comments and give examples of problems, append screen shots to document the problem when necessary.

Questions?  Contact:

Return this form to:		
Deadline:		

SEARCH Functions

Critical Search Functions	Meets Criteria
Y, N, N/A	Notes	
Author:  flexibility (last name first or first name last; initials expanded or truncated) 			
Keyword, especially for subject access 			
Exact beginning of title search 			
Phrase searching 			
Truncation, stemming, wild cards			
Limits by location; format; language; publication type, etc.			
“Peer reviewed only” can be chosen as an option 			
Search from heading links (e.g, author, subject)			
Booleans 			
Basic and expert search options 			
Ease of logoff 			

Important Search Functions	Meets Criteria
Y, N, N/A	Notes	
Fielded searching			
Proximity 			
Exact beginning of phrase search 			
Simultaneous search of databases and backfiles; merged results; duplicates eliminated
(Search of single file is always preferred)			
Browse of subject terms:  thesaurus functions (broader, narrower, related)			
Related articles			
Natural language mapped to controlled vocabulary (Preferred over Browse)			
Sets 			
Special indexes (e.g., map coordinates, musical keys/themes)			
Search History			
Command search option			

Display Functions

Critical Display Functions	Meets Criteria
Y, N, N/A	Notes	
Both short and full display options			
Download option			
Configurable number of records per page 			
Abstracts			
Default sort configurable to date or ranking			
Sorting/ranking: date, author/title, relevancy, frequency of subject term			

Important Display Functions	Meets Criteria
Y, N, N/A	Notes	
Configurable by field			
Jump to specific record			
Export or import into citation management software; ideally conforms to Z39.80 standard			
Download Durable URL (primarily for articles)			
Full text 			
MARC			
Configurable sort options			

Services

Critical Services	Meets Criteria
Y, N, N/A	Notes	
Update/Alert 			
Updates run automatically;
user does not need to issue a command each time the Update is run 			
Save/Mark:  within session reasonable limit on number of citations 			
Print:  formatted to remove html, images			
Email: reasonable limit on number of citations 			
Download: formats for ProCite, EndNote, Reference Manager, RefWorks, etc. 			
Download: reasonable limit on number of citations			
Limit by location or access rights 			

Important Services	Meets Criteria
Y, N, N/A	Notes	
Save/Mark: across sessions 			
Email:  include message, topic			
Update display option for tagged format  (or user configurable display that allows tags)			
Request: supports OpenURL			
Document delivery:  ability to specify service; ability to turn off link to commercial services			

Linking Functions

Critical Linking Functions 	Meets Criteria
Y, N, N/A	Notes	
Link to individual database, bypassing vendor’s home page or default database 			
Link to list of all licensed databases provided by vendor			
If OpenURL (UC-eLinks) is supported, please note any issues for linking			
     To UC holdings			
     To full text via UC-eLinks			
     To Request via UC-eLinks
     To Copy and Paste			
From cited references to full text, via UC-eLinks			
Vendor supports “durable links or “persistent URLs”			

Help and Documentation

Critical Help and Documentation	Meets Criteria
Y, N, N/A	Notes	
Contextual help 			
Error messages that are comprehensible  			
Self-instructing  (e.g, sample searches) 			
Feedback:  ability to send online comments 			

Important Help and Documentation	Meets Criteria
Y, N, N/A	Notes	
Glossary			
How-to help/Tutorial			
Training:  onsite, adaptable user guides, telephone training, webinars			
Feedback:  Configurable to send to home campus			

Standards Compliance

Critical Standards Compliance	Meets Criteria
Y, N, N/A	Notes	
ADA compliance follows W3C guidelines
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ 			
Supports multiple browsers:
At minimum, Netscape v. 6.x; Internet Explorer v. 5.x; Mozilla based browsers, e.g. FireFox			

Important Standards Compliance	Meets Criteria
Y, N, N/A	Notes	
XML--as appropriate for content			
PDF--as appropriate for content			
Telnet or command option			

Performance Criteria

Critical Performance Criteria	Meets Criteria
Y, N, N/A	Notes	
Acceptable speed of results return 			
Frequency of data updates			
If there will be simultaneous user limits, are there appropriate responses when ports are full?			

Assessment Criteria

Important Assessment criteria	Meets Criteria
Y, N, N/A	Notes	
Statistics:
Project COUNTER compliance preferred for items reported; consider ease of access to reports, timeliness, ability to obtain statistics by campus			
Has a customer Users group