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

Programs and research 2

3 Diversion

Programs and research 4

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7 Back to business

Programs and research 8 Some topics 1.Reflections on collection directions 2.Systems support 3.Rareness is common 4.The long tail and library logistics 5.Access to scale: moving to the network level 6.Aggregate collections 7.Conclusions

Programs and research 9 1.Reflections on collection directions …

Programs and research 10 A simplistic and reductive model

Programs and research 11 highlow high stewardship uniqueness Books Journals Newspapers Gov. docs CD, DVD Maps Scores Special collections Rare books Local/Historical newspapers Local history materials Archives & Manuscripts, Theses & dissertations Research and learning materials ePrints/tech reports Learning objects Courseware E-portfolios Research data Freely-accessible web resources Open source software Newsgroup archives

Programs and research 12 Ingest into local collections Bought? Opportunity costs Digitization and offsite storage Sharable > licensable Licensed? The ‘end of publishing’ - through the gates? Focus of much digital library activity. Why? Distinctiveness. New behaviors and support for research and learning Digital ‘record’ more important (prospectus, course catalog, student records)

Programs and research 13 Special: primary materials? Curatorial responsibility for more unique materials ? Institutional Capacities? Collaborative sourcing? Examples Thematic research collection Curated databases Institutional ‘identity’

Programs and research 14 Managing digital? An archival perspective ? Provenance Evidential integrity Versioning Institutional capacities? Collaborative sourcing?

Programs and research 15  Fine grained  Task oriented  Provenance  Context  Versions

Programs and research 16 University of Minnesota

Programs and research 17

Programs and research 18 Securing the scholarly record Community? Institution? The scholarly record ain’t what it used to be? Intervention required Preserving print?

Programs and research 19 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

Programs and research Changing systems support

Programs and research 21 Print Licensed Digital Research & learning outputs … Catalog Metasearch Resolver Repositories … ILS ERM Knowledgebase

Programs and research 22 … Management environment User environment Switch: delivery, routing, resolution

Programs and research 23 library Consumer environments Management environment Licensed Bought Faculty& students Digitized Aggregations Resource sharing … Institutional Workflow Portals, CMS, IR, … Personal Workflow RSS, toolbars,.. Network level workflow Google, … Integrated local user environment? Library web presence Resource sharing, …

Programs and research Rareness is common

Programs and research 25 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

Programs and research 26 … 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 % Held by % Held by % Held by 2 - 5

Programs and research 27 Language distribution LanguageGoogle 5System-wide English German French Spanish Chinese Russian Italian Japanese Hebrew Arabic Portuguese Polish Dutch Latin Korean Swedish0.01< 0.01 All others More than 430 languages in Google 5 collection More than 430 languages in Google 5 collection

Programs and research 28 Cumulative age distribution of G5 holdings > 80 percent of Google 5 collection post 1923 > 80 percent of Google 5 collection post 1923

Programs and research 29 TRLN collection analysis

Programs and research 30  Implications for preservation, storage, mass digitization

Programs and research The long tail and library logistics

Programs and research 32 Library “Inventory” 20% head80% long tail Libraries aggregate supply at the local level… “About the only places you could explore outside the mainstream were the library and the comic book shop.” Chris Anderson, “The Long Tail”

Programs and research 33 The long tail Impact? Systemwide efficiences Aggregation of supply Unified discovery Low transaction costs Aggregation of demand Mobilize users Brand

Programs and research 34 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

Programs and research 35 The Library Long Tail (using holdings as measure of popularity) Note: All statistics are preliminary and subject to change. Final report forthcoming soon. Number of Holdings 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

Programs and research 36 ILL and the Long Tail ( FY 2005 OCLC ILL transactions) Note: All statistics are preliminary and subject to change. Final report forthcoming soon. Number of Holdings Items ranked by system-wide popularity ~75% of ILL requests were directed at the “Head” ~25% of ILL requests were directed 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?

Programs and research 37 Conclusions 5. Access to scale: moving to the network level

Programs and research 38 Moving to the network level In the lone houses and very small villages which are scattered about in so desert a country as the Highlands of Scotland, every farmer must be butcher, baker and brewer for his/her own family. Adam Smith Libraries Librarian Cataloguer, repository, collection, … readers

Programs and research 39 Trajectory … Then  Cataloging & resource sharing  A&I and e-Journals  Collections Now  Growing realization that much more can be done at the network level

Programs and research 40 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

Programs and research Aggregate collections

Programs and research 42 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, …

Programs and research 43  Best practices + organizational contexts for:  Off site storage (see NAST, UKRR)  Mass digitization  Preservation (see Portico, CLOCKSS, …)  D2D ?

Programs and research Conclusions

Programs and research 45  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?