Project Planning Checklist for Collaborative Faculty/Library Projects

General Issues

• What is the relationship between this project, academic departments, research groups (IATH, VCDH, etc.) and the Library?
  
• Are there any participants from outside UVa? Who coordinates the project?
  
• At what levels can this be made available for use?
  
  • Will it be usable only as a complete project, or can the individual components (images, etexts, etc.) be made available as independent part?
    
  • Has an agreement been signed covering material to be collected?
    
• What is the funding source?
  
  • What does the funding cover? Labor? Equipment? Storage? Purchase or licensing of content? Travel?
    
  • Will the Library receive any of the funding?
    
  • Has a Center or selector applied a DLPS allotment to cover any of the production costs?
    
• Will this project be a candidate for "publication" with an outside publisher?
  
  • How might this material be used to support publication?
    
• What are the ownership issues? Is this project one that will be owned by the faculty member as a research project, or by the University?
  
• What is the expected role of the Library?
  
  • Publisher? Partner? Production labor only?
    
  • In short - Is the Library a partner or a service point?
    
• What is the time frame and deadline(s) for the project?
  
• At what point can we ask and expect answers to any of these questions?

Content Creation

• What sort of work is necessary?
  
  • Digitizing
    
  • Metadata Creation
    
  • XML Markup
    
  • HTML coding
    
  • CSS or XSLT creation
    
  • Database Design
    
  • Data Entry
    
  • Data Processing
    
• Who is doing the work?
  
  • Who are the project staff? How many?
    
  • Where will the work take place? Will Library spaces and equipment be used?
    
  • What training provided by Library staff will be necessary for equipment, software, and best practices?
    
  • What is the Library's role, if any, in production?
    
  • Who makes content decisions and selections?
    
• Will resources need to be purchased or licensed?
  
  • Will purchased or licensed material need to have any markup or conversion for delivery in our environment?
    
• What are the copyright issues?
  
• What is the projected amount of space needed to prepare the resources?
  
• What are the formats for the resources?
  
• What is the appropriate metadata?
  
  • What standards and vocabulary will be used?
    
  • What is the minimum markup necessary to accomplish delivery?

Resource Delivery

• What are the technologies that will be used, and will the project be deliverable within the current UVa server, network, and desktop infrastructure?
  
  • Server - OS, Java, XML, Perl scripts, database, application server, search engine?
    
  • Desktop - Browser and Plug-ins
    
• What server will hold the resources?
  
• What is the projected amount of space needed to serve the resources?
  
• What are the delivery specifications?
  
  • What is the interface?
    
    • Color, font, layout, html vs. xml, database
      
  • What branding is necessary?
    
  • Will it require its own search interface?
    
• Will this be an open resources or will it be restricted?
  
  • If restricted, how will the group be identified, and how will access be limited?
    
• Who designs the interface?
  
• How will various contributing organizations be credited?
  
• What testing will be necessary?

Resource Maintenance

• Is this a resource that will be completed and not updated again?
  
  • Will it be expanded over time with new research?
    
  • Will this be related to teaching and be updated term by term?
    
    • Will versions be archived?
      
    • Who will be permitted to make updates?
      
• What are the expectations for long-term storage if this is not collected by the library?
  
• What are the expectations for potential migration of content to new formats/delivery infrastructures over time?