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L. LIBRARY COLLECTIONS Collections purchased for libraries that are the initial collection to be placed in a library, prior to the opening of a new library or the expansion of an existing library, will be capitalized and depreciated over 5 years. Collections include books, DVDs, CDs, and magazine subscriptions. M. INTANGIBLE ASSETS Intangible assets such as computer software, easements, and land use/water/leachate rights will be capitalized on the County's books and amortized over their useful lives unless that life is indefinite. Computer software is considered an intangible asset if it is developed in-house by County employees or by a third parry contractor on behalf of the government. This includes any commercially available software that is purchased or licensed by the County and that the County must exert minimal incremental effort before the software can be put into operation (per GASB 51). Such purchases will be capitalized if they meet the County's capitalization threshold (Section E). The capitalization threshold will be applied on a per license basis for software purchases. If the per license costs meets the capitalization threshold,the purchase will be capitalized as an intangible asset. When developing or purchasing computer software, there are three stages identified: Preliminary Project Stage, Application Development Stage, and the Post- Implementation/Operation Stage. The stages are defined as follows: 1. Preliminary Project Stage—Evaluation of needs,bid process, and final selection of software 2. Application Development Stage —Software design and installation to hardware, software interfaces and testing, including parallel process 3. Post-Implementation/Operation Stage—Application training and software maintenance The County will only capitalize those activities that are part of the Application Development Stage. All other costs will be expensed as incurred. Yearly renewals and regular upgrades of existing software will be considered an operating cost and expensed as incurred. The County will amortize software over 3-5 years, depending on whether the software is a component of an existing system or a brand new system. Easements and rights granted to or purchased by the County will be assumed to have an indefinite useful life unless there are contractual or legal requirements that state otherwise. In those instances, the County will amortize those easements and rights over the life stated in the contract documents. � Q