A New Classification System for Free Electronic Resources

Libraries play a crucial role in identifying, organizing, classifying, and delivering access to useful information at the point of need including information that is otherwise freely available online. A new classification system for free electronic resources called Scholarship, Persistence, Entity, Compatibility, and Convenience (SPECC) can help library personnel determine whether specific free electronic resources should be made available through their libraries. SPECC is not intended to be used as the only means of evaluating free electronic resources for collection development purposes, but SPECC does broadly categorize most free electronic resources and can save time and money.

► SPECC is a new classification system for free electronic resources.
► SPECC stands for Scholarship, Persistence, Entity, Compatibility, and Convenience.
► SPECC helps libraries select free electronic resources for their collections.