The world’s libraries. Connected.

Beyond surveys towards practical next steps

Making Unique & Distinctive Collections Work

Exeter, 22 March 2013

Titia van der WerfSenior Program OfficerOCLC Research

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• Some context: OCLC Research in Europe and in the UK

• Identifying shared interest areas between RLUK and OCLC Research

• Addressing challenges jointly in the area of special collections

Content

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Goal: to become a trusted partner in EuropeStrategy:1. Continue to engage individual institutions (The OCLC

Research Library Partnership)

2. Shape liaison partnerships with consortia (at national and European levels)

3. Create collaboration opportunities with relevant agencies (data aggregations, shared service providers, etc.)

OCLC Research in Europe

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The OCLC Research Library Partners in the UKAberdeen, British Library, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Imperial College, Kings College, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London School of Economics, Manchester, National Library of Scotland, Natural History Museum, Oxford, St Andrews, Tate Gallery Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, Warwick, Wellcome Library, York. http://www.oclc.org/research/partnership/roster.html

• 19 out of 33 RLUK members are ORLP members

OCLC Research in the UK

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A list of ORLP activities with UK-partners:• SHARES – promotes the sharing of access to participant’s

collections via lending and inter-library loan; enables participating institutions to agree on prices, procedures and policies; to monitor their own performance and manage workflows to support increased lending. SHARES institutions in the UK include: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Warwick

OCLC Research in the UK

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A list of ORLP activities with UK-partners • Open linked data project (CoMET - Cambridge) – enriching

bibliographic data with VIAF and FAST links.

• Good enough-cataloguing (Cambridge) - MARC metadata creation practices: analysis of tag usage in WorldCat .

• Digital Visitors and Residents (Oxford): JISC funded project.

• Registering Researchers in Authority Files (Task Group members from UK: Manchester, Oxford, British Library, Cambridge, Symplectic).

OCLC Research in the UK

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A list of ORLP activities with UK-partners• Beyond the Silos of the LAMS: Collaboration between Libraries,

Archives & Museums (Edinburgh)

• Beta test WorldCat Identities Project (British Library)

• Sharing and aggregating Social Metadata (British Library)

• User-centered design of a recommender system (Sheffield)

OCLC Research in the UK

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Shaping closer liaison with RLUK• Existing liaison between OCLC Research and RLUK staff;

attending RLUK member meetings

• Existing joint activities: OCLC Research – RLUK Survey on special collections

• OCLC Proposal to the RLUK Board (November 2012) towards a more formal liaison partnership

OCLC Research in the UK

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Shaping closer liaison with RLUK• identify common areas of shared interest: overlap

RLUK strategic agenda and OCLC research agenda;

• invest sustained effort over time and ensure continuity leading to effective results;

• address RLUK as a whole: outcomes should be relevant to RLUK membership as a whole/national relevancy; and leverage member capacities.

OCLC Research in the UK

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Creating collaboration opportunities with relevant UK agencies if/when opportune:

• JISC

• iSchool (Sheffield)

• MIMAS

• etc.

OCLC Research in the UK

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RLUK agenda OCLC research agenda

Redefining the library model• Supporting researchers• Use of space• Scholarly communication• Workforce development

Advancing the research mission• Support for research workflows

MacColl & Jubb Report based on studies of the US (2010) and of the UK (2010)

•Changes in scholarly communications Sustainability of disciplinary repositories (R. Erway)

•Role of libraries in data curation(orientation stage)

Shaping ethical and effective publishing•Reducing journal costs/other models•Open access to research outputsModelling the library role in research data management•Library role and policy in RDM; •Workforce development

Shared interest areas RLUK and OCLC Research

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RLUK agenda OCLC research agenda

Collaborating to reduce costs and improve quality•UKRR, COPAC, shared collection management, discovery infrastructure

System-wide Organisation•Managing shared print collections•Cloud-sourcing shared research collections

Metadata Management•Network-level discovery (Schema.org; Wikipedia)•Discovery of digitised collections (Europeana Pilots)•Reuse/Linked data•Enrichment (VIAF, FAST, NER)•Registering Researchers in Authority Files

Shared interest areas RLUK and OCLC Research

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RLUK agenda OCLC research agenda

Promoting Unique and Distinctive Collections•Maximising the potential of UDCs through public engagement, fundraising, discovery, digitisation, impact, staff skills•Business models for large-scale collaborative digitisation•Digital/physical preservation•Digital humanities

•Archives Hub

Mobilizing Unique Materials

•US and UK/Ireland Surveys•Outreach•Born-digital (You’ve got to walk Report; Swatting the long tail)•Sharing special collections•Rough and ready Report (putting finding aids online)•Rapid capture Report •Digital Humanities (orientation stage)•ArchiveGrid (discovery)

Shared interest areas RLUK and OCLC Research

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1. outreach

2. space/facilities

3. born-digital

4. collection care

5. cataloguing & archival processing

6. digitisation

7. access

8. staff development

Challenges in special collections

Most challenging issues (according to the RLUK-OCLC-Survey):

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Related challenges coming out of other UK-reports:• BLPAC Report: UDCs are broader than special collections: bulk of

UDCs from 1850-1970; special formats; foreign languages.

=> preserving the “collective collection” = a national collaborative effort for the shared print collection;

=> balance the need to mainstream the special collections and the need to put the special in the collective collection

• Knowing the Need Report: promote surrogacy as a preservation strategy

=> importance of a national digitisation strategy

Challenges in special collections

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Regrouping the issues and taking out space/facilities (out-of-scope for OCLC Research):

1. outreach / staff development

2. born-digital / staff development

3. collection care, cataloguing & archival processing / staff development

4. extending access (through digitisation, inter-lending, improved discovery) and introducing a new dimension to access: the needs of digital humanities / staff development

Challenges in special collections

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Outreach:• Survey outcomes: skills development, including

becoming more comfortable with classroom teaching.

• Look for success stories: showcase UK / US / European examples

• ORLP Outreach Workshop on Monday June 3rd (Past Forward event at Yale)

• Possible RLUK-OCLC Research activity: Repeat similar workshop in UK?

Addressing challenges jointly

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Born-digital:• Survey outcomes: under collected, undermanaged, no

support from management (25%), unprocessed born-digital materials added to the (print) backlogs.

• ORLP activity: demystifying born-digital

• Other players in this area (DCC, DPC, etc.)

• Possible RLUK-OCLC Research activity: Awareness-raising at RLUK higher management level? Extending ORLP activity?

Addressing challenges jointly

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Collection care, cataloguing & archival processing• Possible RLUK-OCLC Research activity: Promote

earlier work by OCLC Research and make it relevant to the UK context?

• Managing shared print collections

• Cloud-sourcing shared research collections

• Analyzing archival descriptive practice

• More product, less process; quick and clean; etc.

• Barriers to use of EAD; disseminate use of EAC;

• etc.

Addressing challenges jointly

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Extending access through digitisation • Survey recommendation: a national gateway for

discovery of digitised content;

• In the past “massive amounts” of (small) digitisation/microfilming projects – most of the outcomes are not available online.

• Possible RLUK-OCLC Research activity: What are the barriers to make digitised collections available? Learn from similar situation in other countries. Input for an action plan to set-up a national gateway.

Addressing challenges jointly

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Extending access through inter-lending: • Survey outcomes: huge concerns about usage. 81%

non-circulating materials and only 16% reproductions; average for a digital scan: £3 – £15

• ORLP Sharing Special Collections Report coming out soon – trust is central issue

• Possible RLUK-OCLC Research activity: Promote ORLP SHARES activity in the UK?

Addressing challenges jointly

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Extending access through improved discovery• Survey outcomes: user expectations, single search,

access systems, find aid-related access, tracing use, discovery and related information technology issues

• Possible RLUK-OCLC Research activity: how can special collections best be integrated in mainstream web-based discovery services?

Addressing challenges jointly

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Extending access to Digital Humanities• Possible RLUK-OCLC Research activity: What are DH

requirements for access/re-use of digitised UDCs? • Digitised collections as datasets: what is the demand for

analytical access to corpora for research?

• Loss of information during digitisation: image versus full-text; OCR-quality; analogue structures get lost; etc. How much of the physical artefact needs to be reconstructed digitally to facilitate research?

• Basic enrichment needs? etc.

Addressing challenges jointly

The world’s libraries. Connected.

Questions?Titia van der Werftitia.vanderwerf@oclc.org