EKS.WING.LIB.ACQUISITIONS · COLLECTIONS DEVELOPMENT · ACTIVE
Collections Development, Curation & Acquisitions Wing
The Library should not grow by producing random articles. It should grow because a collection has a mission, a measurable gap exists, a candidate has been evaluated, and the chosen acquisition method strengthens the Library without duplicating an existing owner.
Article production is one acquisition method. It is not the default behaviour of the Library.
COLLECTION_DEVELOPMENT_V1 MISSION → COLLECTION → REQUIRED_KNOWLEDGE → CURRENT_HOLDINGS → GAP → CANDIDATES → AUTHORITY_QUALITY_RIGHTS → CURATION_DECISION → ACQUISITION_METHOD → CATALOGUE_AND_CROSSWALK → eduKateAI_ROUTE_TEST → COLLECTION_HEALTH_RETURN
The agent team
| Agent | Identity | Primary job |
|---|---|---|
| Collection Strategy Agent | EKS.AGENT.LIB.COLLECTION_STRATEGY | Defines the mission, audience, boundaries and desired depth of each collection. |
| Needs Agent | EKS.AGENT.LIB.NEEDS | Listens for recurring unanswered eduKateAI questions, programme needs and missing evidence. |
| Gap Auditor | EKS.AGENT.LIB.GAP_AUDITOR | Compares required coverage against actual holdings and identifies missing positions. |
| Coverage Matrix Agent | EKS.AGENT.LIB.COVERAGE_MATRIX | Measures missing, shallow, stale, duplicated and over-developed areas. |
| Curriculum & Programme Needs Agent | EKS.AGENT.LIB.PROGRAMME_NEEDS | Identifies knowledge required by eduKate teaching, curriculum, assessment and runtime programmes without making service pages the authority. |
| World Knowledge Needs Agent | EKS.AGENT.LIB.WORLD_NEEDS | Finds missing components required to explain world systems, institutions, science and civilisation coherently. |
| Canonical Owner Agent | EKS.AGENT.LIB.CANONICAL_OWNER | Checks collision, cannibalisation, current ownership and whether an existing article or collection should receive the material. |
| Candidate Curator | EKS.AGENT.LIB.CANDIDATE_CURATOR | Builds a candidate set and comparison rather than accepting the first discoverable source. |
| Quality & Authority Agent | EKS.AGENT.LIB.QUALITY_AUTHORITY | Evaluates evidential strength, institutional role, methodological quality and fitness for the intended job. |
| Rights & Licensing Agent | EKS.AGENT.LIB.RIGHTS_LICENSING | Determines whether material may be ingested, quoted, summarised, linked, licensed or only referenced. |
| Acquisition Selector | EKS.AGENT.LIB.ACQUISITION_SELECTOR | Selects the minimum sufficient acquisition method. |
| Commissioning Editor Agent | EKS.AGENT.LIB.COMMISSIONING_EDITOR | Commissions a new eduKate article, manual, hub or view only when a real Library position remains missing. |
| Ingest & Catalog Agent | EKS.AGENT.LIB.INGEST_CATALOG | Registers acquired material, source identities, manifests and catalogue relationships. |
| Crosswalk Curator | EKS.AGENT.LIB.CROSSWALK_CURATOR | Installs links between the acquisition and existing collections, curricula, world systems and eduKateAI routes. |
| Collection Health Agent | EKS.AGENT.LIB.COLLECTION_HEALTH | Re-audits collections for stale holdings, missing updates, duplication, orphaning and unhealthy growth. |
| Acquisition Receipt Agent | EKS.AGENT.LIB.ACQUISITION_RECEIPT | Records why a candidate was acquired, rejected, deferred or routed elsewhere. |
Allowed acquisition outcomes
CROSSWALK_EXISTING ACQUIRE_METADATA REGISTER_PRIMARY_SOURCE LINK_TO_AUTHORITY ACQUIRE_OPEN_RESOURCE INGEST_OWNED_MATERIAL UPDATE_EXISTING_OWNER COMMISSION_ORIGINAL_ARTICLE COMMISSION_LEARNING_MANUAL COMMISSION_HUB_OR_VIEW DO_NOT_ACQUIRE_DUPLICATE HOLD_RIGHTS HOLD_EVIDENCE HOLD_COLLISION DEFER_LOW_PRIORITY NO_ACTION_REQUIRED
The chosen outcome must be the smallest action that closes the actual collection gap. If a reliable external authority already owns the material, a strong crosswalk may be better than copying it. If an existing eduKate article can absorb the missing knowledge safely, updating that owner may be better than creating a new page.
What creates an acquisition need?
- Repeated eduKateAI failures or unresolved HELP routes.
- A collection that cannot answer one of its declared core questions.
- An article whose important claims lack a canonical or sufficiently strong source.
- A curriculum, assessment, law, standard or institutional transition that makes holdings stale.
- A missing primary source, dataset, archival record or reference work required for evidence quality.
- A crosswalk gap between two collections that prevents retrieval even though the information exists.
- A strategic research programme that requires coverage the Library does not yet possess.
- A collection-health audit showing shallow coverage, fragile single-source dependence, orphaned material or excessive duplication.
Acquisition priority test
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Is the gap required by an active eduKate programme or recurring reader need? | Prevents novelty from outranking usefulness. |
| Does another eduKate owner already cover it? | Prevents cannibalisation and duplicate acquisition. |
| Is there a canonical external authority we should crosswalk instead? | Prevents unnecessary copying. |
| Would this acquisition materially improve answer quality, evidence, coverage or resilience? | Requires a measurable collection benefit. |
| Can we lawfully and sustainably access or represent it? | Rights and access are acquisition constraints, not afterthoughts. |
| Will the material stay useful long enough to justify maintenance? | Distinguishes durable acquisitions from transient noise. |
| Can eduKateAI route to it and know when it is stale? | Acquisition without retrieval and expiry behaviour is incomplete. |
Commissioning gate for new articles
A new article is commissioned only after LOCAL HOLDINGS → CANONICAL OWNER → EXTERNAL AUTHORITY → RIGHTS → COLLISION → COLLECTION GAP have been checked. The commissioning brief must name the missing reader job, collection owner, required sources, internal-link contract, freshness rule and eduKateAI route test before writing begins.
This prevents a large estate from becoming a warehouse of disconnected prose. Every commissioned object must have a shelf, a reason, an owner and a return path.
The feedback loop with eduKateAI
eduKateAI asks → Library searches → gap is observed → need is recorded → candidates are curated → acquisition decision is made → source/resource/article is catalogued → crosswalk is installed → route is tested → future eduKateAI request resolves more strongly
Existing Library plumbing
- Interlibrary Discovery & Crosswalk Wing — finds external collections and candidate sources.
- Eratosthenes Library Accession Ledger — accession, identity, disposition, salvage and provenance discipline.
- Research Collections Directory — public research ownership and collection routing.
- World Knowledge Research Library — source, institution, evidence and systems context.
- eduKateSingapore Runtime Manifest — machine call and return behaviour.
Ownership boundary: this wing decides what the Library should acquire or commission. It does not bypass existing owners, publish private/proprietary material, treat publication as verification, or perform destructive consolidation without the separate SEO, domain, salvage and collision gates already established by Eratosthenes.
From acquisition decision to publication
When this wing returns COMMISSION_ORIGINAL_ARTICLE, COMMISSION_LEARNING_MANUAL, COMMISSION_HUB_OR_VIEW, UPDATE_EXISTING_OWNER or a formal re-edition decision, the approved job passes to Wintour House | The eduKate Publishing House.
VERIFIED_GAP → ACQUISITION_RECEIPT → CANONICAL_OWNER_AND_RIGHTS → WINTOUR_HOUSE_COMMISSION → eduKate2_AUTHORS_ROOM → CIVDJ_AND_EVIDENCE → PHASE4++++_GATES → GUTENBERG_EDITION → PUBLICATION_AND_RETURN
Boundary: Acquisitions decides whether the Library should obtain or commission something. Wintour House decides whether the resulting manuscript deserves publication and whether it is ready. A commission can be returned, held or killed without deleting any existing public article.