This document provides evaluation criteria for digital library resources and services. It outlines criteria for key areas like search functionality, display options, standards, performance, services, and evaluation. Search criteria include basic and advanced search features. Display criteria cover options for viewing search results. The document also lists criteria for help documentation, linking, and technical standards compliance.

1. Evaluation Criteria Evaluation Criteria
Search Linking
• Basic and advanced search options • To full text at journal publishers for UC
• Keyword, especially for subject access subscriptions (campus and CDL)
• Exact beginning of phrase search • To UC holdings
• Flexible author search, e.g., last name first or first • Directly to individual database, bypassing
name last; initials expanded or truncated vendor’s home page or forcing a default
• Fielded searching database
• Phrase searching
• Proximity searching
• Truncation, stemming, wild cards Help / Documentation
• Limits, e.g., location, format, language
• Browse of subject terms: thesaurus functions, e.g., • Useful error messages
broader, narrower, related • Glossary of terms, help topics
• Search from heading links, e.g, author,subject • “How to…” / Tutorials
• Related articles algorithm • Contextual help
• Natural language mapped to controlled vocabulary • Training: adaptable user guides
• Boolean / search sets • Feedback: ability to send comments
• Special indexes, e.g., map coordinates, musical
keys/themes
Standards
• Search history
• Command search option
• Z39.50 server or API for search/display
• Easy to logoff
• Telnet or command option
• ADA compliance
Display • Not bandwidth intensive
• Multiple browsers supported
• Short / full / citation / abstracts • Authentication: IP address; certificates
• Configurable by field • MARC, XML, PDF
• Download option
• Download option in tags format
Performance
• Download URL (primarily for articles)
• Jump to specific record
• Reliability
• Configurable number of records per page
• Speed of results
• Sorting/ranking: date, author/title, relevancy, frequency
of subject term • Frequency of data updates
• Notification of scheduled and unscheduled
outages
Services • Advance notification of interface changes
• Availability
• Update / current awareness service
• Save / mark: within session; across sessions;
reasonable limit on number of citations Evaluation
• Print: formatted to remove html, images
• Statistics
• Email: include message, topic; reasonable limit on
number of citations • Vendor responsiveness to suggested
changes
• Download: Z39.80 standard preferred; reasonable limit
on number of citations
• Request: provide option in interface; ability to format
ISO record with citation; ability to pass user to CDL
Credits:
front end
• Document delivery: ability to specify service Document developed by the California Digital
• Limit by location or access rights Library Tools and Services Working Group with
assistance from CDL Resource Liaisons
Distributed by the California Digital Library
Society for Scholarly Publishing 26th Annual Meeting 2004