Policy statementSelection criteriaSubmission criteriaDeselection Criteria
Web publishing guidelinesAuthoring committee

The mission of the Literacy Information aNd Communication System (LINCS) is to serve as a one-stop gateway to information and resources and to promote intellectual discovery for literacy practitioners, researchers, policy makers, and adult learners. Accordingly, the selection policy will assist selectors in providing quality resource collections and user services that support the adult and family literacy community's goals for learning, instruction, policy implementation, program development and research.

General LINCS Selection Criteria
Selection Criteria for Specific Resource Types
Special Collection Selection Criteria
DRAFT Selection Criteria - March 2004

The following are the criteria that all resources included in LINCS collections are expected to meet, regardless of medium or authorship.
The materials included in LINCS -- in any medium, whether they are full text, excerpts, or abstracts -- should be clearly connected to educational purposes.
• Have practical value and relevance for literacy practitioners, researchers, policy makers, or adult learners.
• Be innovative or unique and of high quality.
• Be well-presented and well-formatted (both in electronic and print formats); the submission of bilingual materials and materials in languages besides English is encouraged.
• Be current materials or have up-to-date application.
• Have clear statement of authorship, ownership, or responsibility for content.
• Include an indicator of publication or completion date, or date last updated.
• Include bibliographic citations, when relevant.

In addition, use of any materials that are not the original creation of the authors should be accompanied by the creator's express permission for the material's use in all formats presented.  In other words, if a publication is being made available in print and in an online format, the creator must give permission to have their work used in both formats.

Web links selected for inclusion in the LINCS system must meet all of the criteria for original materials and the following additional criteria.
• Have accurate, functioning URLs; i.e., no "dead links."
• Have short, useful annotations (perhaps highlighting a few features of the site's relevance for adult literacy practitioners and/or learners).
• Not send people to sites that are password protected or that are not freely accessible.