Programs and Research Thinking about collections Lorcan Dempsey Fiesole retreat The University of Hong Kong 13 April 2007

Programs and Research

Thinking about collections

Lorcan Dempsey

Fiesole retreatThe University of Hong Kong13 April 2007

Programs and research 2


Diversion





Back to business


Some topics

1. Reflections on collection directions2. Systems support3. Rareness is common4. The long tail and library logistics5. Access to scale: moving to the network level6. Aggregate collections7. Conclusions


1.Reflections on collectiondirections …


A simplistic and reductivemodel


high low

low

high

stewardship

uni

que

ne

ssBooksJournalsNewspapersGov. docsCD, DVDMapsScores

Special collectionsRare booksLocal/Historical newspapersLocal history materialsArchives & Manuscripts, Theses & dissertations

Research and learning materials •ePrints/tech reports•Learning objects•Courseware•E-portfolios•Research data

Freely-accessible web resourcesOpen source softwareNewsgroup archives


Ingest into local collections

•Bought?•Opportunity costs•Digitization and offsite storage•Sharable > licensable

•Licensed?•The ‘end of publishing’ - through the gates?

Focus of much digitallibrary activity.Why?Distinctiveness.

New behaviors and support for research and learning

Digital ‘record’ more important(prospectus, course catalog, student records)


Special: primary materials?

Curatorial responsibility for

more unique materials?

Institutional Capacities?

Collaborative sourcing?

Examples•Thematic research collection•Curated databases•Institutional ‘identity’


Managing digital?

An archival perspective?

ProvenanceEvidential integrityVersioning

Institutional capacities?Collaborative sourcing?


Fine grained Task

oriented

Provenance Context Versions


University of Minnesotahttp://www.lib.umn.edu/about/mellon/KM%20JStor%20Presentation.pps



Securing the scholarly record

Community?

Institution?

The scholarlyrecord ain’twhat it used tobe?

•Intervention required•Preserving print?


Mature?Institutional maturity – an industry and cooperative structures

•Structures under pressure•Libraries organized around this quadrant (‘owned’)•Emerging techniques for licensed•New systems framework for licensed

Institutional immaturity Organizational models for collective activity, reducing costs, etc, in development. Commodity systems not available


2. Changing systems support


Print Licensed Digital Research&

learningoutputs

…

Catalog MetasearchResolver

Repositories …

Repositories …ILS ERMKnowledgebase


…

Management environment

User environment

Switch: delivery, routing, resolution


libraryConsumer environmentsManagement environment

Licensed

Bought

Faculty&students

Digitized AggregationsResource sharing

…

Institutional WorkflowPortals, CMS, IR, …

PersonalWorkflowRSS, toolbars, ..

Network level workflowGoogle, …

Integratedlocal user environment?Library web presenceResource sharing, …


3. Rareness is common


Rareness is common … in the G5

G5 aggregate collection:• 10.5 million books• ~60 percent represent unique contribution by one or another of the G5 libraries

61%Held by 1

20%Held by 2

10%Held by 3

6%Held by 4

3%Held by 5


… and beyond

System-wide print book collection (as of January 2005)• ~32 million print books

37%Held by 1

5%Held by > 100

3%Held by 51 - 100

5%Held by 26 - 50

20%Held by 6 - 25

30%Held by 2 - 5


Language distribution

Language Google 5 System-wideEnglish 0.49 0.52German 0.10 0.08French 0.08 0.08Spanish 0.05 0.06Chinese 0.04 0.04Russian 0.04 0.03Italian 0.03 0.03Japanese 0.02 0.04Hebrew 0.02 0.01Arabic 0.01 0.01Portuguese 0.01 0.01Polish 0.01 0.01Dutch 0.01 0.01Latin 0.01 0.01Korean 0.01 0.01Swedish 0.01 < 0.01All others 0.07 0.08

More than 430languages in

Google 5collection

More than 430languages in

Google 5collection


Cumulative age distribution of G5 holdings

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

Years

Pro

po

rtio

n P

ub

lish

ed D

uri

ng

or

Pri

or

To

C

urr

ent

Yea

r

> 80 percent of Google 5collection post 1923

> 80 percent of Google 5collection post 1923


TRLN collection analysis

http://www.trln.org/TaskGroups/CollectionAnalysis/TRLN_CollAnalysis_June2Report.pdf


Implications for preservation, storage, mass digitization


4. The long tail and library logistics


Library “Inventory”

20% head 80% long tail

Libraries aggregate supply at the local level…

“About the only places you could explore outside themainstream were the library and the comic book shop.”

Chris Anderson, “The Long Tail”


The long tail

Impact?

Systemwide efficiences

Aggregation of supply•Unified discovery•Low transaction costs

Aggregation of demand•Mobilize users•Brand


Libraries and the long tail dynamic

Aggregate supply?

1.7% of circulations are ILLs (60% of aggregate G5

collection owned by one library only)

Aggregate demand?

20% of collection accounted for 90% of use

(2 research libraries over ~4 years)

Each reader his/her book

Each book its reader


The Library Long Tail(using holdings as measure of popularity)

Note: All statistics arepreliminary and subjectto change. Final reportforthcoming soon.

Nu

mb

er

of

Ho

ldin

gs

Items ranked by system-wide popularity

“Head”

“Long Tail”

Head:Top 10% of WorldCat records (ranked by holdings)account for 80% of total WorldCat holdings

Long Tail:Bottom 90% of WorldCat records (ranked by holdings)account for 20% of total WorldCat holdings

Figure not drawn to scale;for illustration purposes only


ILL and the Long Tail(FY 2005 OCLC ILL transactions)

Note: All statistics arepreliminary and subjectto change. Final reportforthcoming soon.

Nu

mb

er

of

Ho

ldin

gs

Items ranked by system-wide popularity

~75% of ILL requests weredirected at the “Head”

~25% of ILL requests weredirected at the “Long Tail”

By comparison, Chris Anderson (The Long Tail, 2006) reports:

Amazon: ~ 25% of sales from the “long tail”Netflix: ~ 20% of sales from the “long tail”

* Question: are current ILL systems adequately supporting demand for the library long tail?


Conclusions

5. Access to scale: moving to the network level


Moving to the network level

In the lone houses and very small villageswhich are scattered about in so desert a country as the Highlands of Scotland, everyfarmer must be butcher, baker and brewerfor his/her own family.

Adam Smith

Libraries

Librarian

Cataloguer, repository,collection, …

readers


Trajectory …

Then Cataloging & resource sharing A&I and e-Journals Collections

Now Growing realization that much more can be done

at the network level


Multilevel approach to …

Collections Shared offsite storage Aggregate and analyse

digital collections Institutional repository Digital storage and

preservation

Social and consumer environments Social networking services:

tagging, reviews, recommendations

Virtual reference

D2D Consolidated discovery Knowledge base Resolution - Service

routing – fulfilment

Business intelligence Synthesize and mobilize

shared usage data Recommendation,

management decisions Digitization and offsite

storage


6. Aggregate collections


Aggregate collections

Collection development Mass digitization Off site storage Discovery to delivery

Find it – get it Preservation

Thinking about collections in aggregate or systemwide terms

Opportunity costs Space Attention/value

On demand Print on demand Buy on demand Digitize on demand

Management data: holdings, circulation, …


Best practices + organizational contexts for:

Off site storage (see NAST, UKRR) Mass digitization Preservation (see Portico, CLOCKSS, …) D2D

?


7. Conclusions


The scholarly record: what is it and how is stewardship exercised?

Recalibrate local and ‘collaboratively’ sourced Systemwide/network level

Plural business and delivery models

Develop a more instrumental view of organizations at the network level?

Documents

Programs and Research Thinking about collections Lorcan Dempsey Fiesole retreat The University of Hong Kong 13 April 2007