Collections consist of intellectual content. It is important for the collection developer to be familiar with the intellectual content life cycle. Although the life cycle can be complex, it involves a few major stages. In the past, most collection developers depended on another to create intellectual content so that it could be included in a collection. Today, ease and low cost of creation allows the collection developer to also be a creator of intellectual content. It will be interesting to see how many assume that role.
Products are created because someone believes that they are needed. The need may be inner-directed so that the creator is driven to create, a book on a favorite railroad or a family genealogy or a collection of poems, without any particular interest in the market. The need may be other-directed or created to meet a felt need or one that can easily be stimulated. Here, the market or sales potential is extremely important. Although it may seem curious, most intellectual property is created because of the inner need rather than a desire to make money.
Once a need for an item is expressed, there is often a search to see if someone else has created a product that will meet the need. If the need can be meet with an existing product, there is little need to create a new one. Often, however, there is no suitable product or existing products are dated, too expensive, incomplete, in the wrong format or otherwise unsuitable.
Intellectual property may be created by an individual, a group of individuals, or an organization. Intellectual property created as an employee is called "work for hire" and the intellectual property then belongs to the employing organization. Organizations may also contract with others to create intellectual property which may be owned or leased by the buyer. Intellectual property created by individuals on their own time and with their own resources belongs to them and is protected by copyright. Copyright is automatic upon completion of the work.
Intellectual property may be sold or the creator may decide to "self-publish" and control distribution. Intellectual property may be given away, many religious publishers do this with their ephemeral material, or sold. In order to make money, it is usually necessary for the creator to sell her intellectual property to a publisher who will improve the intellectual content, place it in an appropriate package, and arrange for distribution (including advertising and sending review copies to the proper sources).
Although there are wonderful stories of basement inventors with a new patent worth millions, lonely novelists with sudden best sellers, garage bands that make it big, and the like, most creators are NOT successful in selling their products. The rejection rate is high. Even intellectual property created in-house is often rejected. Rejection will lead many creators to self-publish, but getting visibility and convincing potential buyers can be a problem. It is difficult to evaluate value or quality control when a product is issued by an unknown.
Normally, the agency that acquires intellectual property will improve it by careful, appropriate change in intellectual content (editing). Editors or their equivalents are familiar with the market, with the potential audience, and know how to make intellectual property better.
Most intellectual property needs a proper package to facilitate distribution and sales. In some, cases manufacturing the container may be a problem and design is related to that. Design should make the product attractive, easy to use, and worth buying and keeping. Design should enhance the quality of the product. While most creators have ideas about design, proper design may require professional help. Book designers have done this for many years.
Synergy is repurposing or recycling intellectual content from one format to another. For example, the content from a novel may be used to create a film. Many information/entertainment providers are interested in acquiring intellectual property that can be used in many ways. Again, content from a novel could be sold as: a board game, digital game, TV series, sheets and pillow cases, action toys and the like. One of the jobs of an editor is to identify the synergies present in a particular work.
While some digital products may not require manufacturing (the HTML novel is simply put on a server), many intellectual products must be manufactured in some quantity for inventory and eventual sales. While publication on demand has been available for print products for some years and is now somewhat available for musical recordings, most intellectual property is still manufactured. This step involves technical specifications, quality control, and some awareness of which time is best to sell certain products. Someone must be responsible for insuring that the final product is of good quality, may be used without difficulty, and is as inexpensive as possible.
Depending on the nature of the product, there are a variety of distribution methods, including the traditional one of using wholesale and retail outlets. Digital items may be distributed via web sites and ftp servers. One of the attractive aspects of "publishing" via the web is that the creator can easily handle distribution and with minimal cost. Dealing directly with the consumer may also provide the creator with helpful information about product quality, utility, and audience appeal. A negative is that with so many web sites and so many creators, it may be difficult for a selector to find a particular product and evaluate its quality before purchase. Some products may allow a "test drive," but that requires time and attention by the potential buyer.
If it is important to widely distribute a product, the potential audience must be made aware of its existence. Traditionally, that has been done via advertisements and reviews. Since selectors for information agencies often read only a few review sources, this can be a problem if reviews and comments are scattered on web sites, news groups, and discussion lists. Awareness of new products and suggestions from potential users may lead to a selection decision.
After relating the new item to the existing collection, the community to be served, financial resources, reviews, and issuer reputation, items may be selected to be added to the collection.
As new items are received, they are checked, paid for, prepared for use, and added to the collection. Ordinarily, new items are made visible to potential users in some way.
From time to time, items in the collection are reviewed to insure that they are used, useful, and usable. Important intellectual content will be preserved for the future. Less important content will be weeded. For some formats, content must be "refreshed" to insure that it will be usable with current hardware and software. A very few rare items will need to be "conserved" (the original artifact will be kept for as long as possible), probably in some sort of special collection.
When might a collector/selector create intellectual content rather than waiting for others?
How should collectors cope with an environment where it is easy for many individuals to create and distribute their own intellectual property? Are these ventures just "vanity publishing" that can be safely ignored?
How might collection developers efficiently and effectively use the Internet to locate information about new intellectual products?
How might you begin to decide which items in a collection need to be kept for a long time?
