Electronic resources will be collected following the same principles and criteria as those used in collecting resources in other formats, e.g., meet the research needs of faculty, students and staff, support the curriculum, provide information in a timely fashion. Electronic collections require an additional set of criteria which reflect the special nature of the electronic format. Electronic resources must have an appropriate search interface, be suitable for use on available hardware and platforms, and be consistently reliable in its delivery of information.
Reliability here refers to response time and overall technological performance.
The choice of access mode will depend on what publishers offer, with preference given to the WWW if the search interface, ease of access, and cost are acceptable. WWW access should be as seamless as possible, using IP domain or a similarly invisible authentication procedure. When more than one vendor offers the same or similar database, selection of a particular vendor will follow the previous principles. Priority of one vendor over another will be determined by greater reliability in information delivery, a superior search interface, and cost. Development of electronic collections will be accompanied by an appropriate development of hardware resources in order to provide access to the collections within the BC libraries.