COLLECTION DESCRIPTION IN CONTEXT Dr Clive Field The British Library May 2002

Collection Description in Context OVERVIEW The Collection Description Context The National Initiatives Context The Full Disclosure Context The British Library Context Why (not) Collection Description?

Collection Description in Context THE COLLECTION DESCRIPTION CONTEXT (1) Andy Powell, Collection Level Description: A Review of Existing Practice (August 1999) - Michael Heaney, An Analytical Model of Collections and their Catalogues (January 2000) - D-Lib Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 9 (September 2000) -

Collection Description in Context THE COLLECTION DESCRIPTION CONTEXT (2) Collection Description Focus News Bulletin, (July 2001-date) - Pete Johnston and Bridget Robinson, Collections and Collection Description (January 2002) - focus/briefings/bp1/bp1.pdf/ Pete Johnston, An Introduction to Collection-Level Description (March 2002) -

Collection Description in Context THE NATIONAL INITIATIVES CONTEXT Research Support Libraries Programme Joint Information Systems Committee British Library UKOLN Full Disclosure Implementation Group NOF Digitise Research Support Libraries Group CURL Access to Archives National Council on Archives mda Resource

Collection Description in Context THE FULL DISCLOSURE CONTEXT 1999 Full Disclosure concentrates on library and archive collections, with a focus on retrospective conversion and item-level description - around 49 million library and 12 million archive catalogue entries to be created at a cost of around £140 million Full Disclosure does recommend a library mapping exercise to produce a collection register for libraries equivalent to the National Register of Archives (paragraphs 5.1.7, )

Collection Description in Context THE FULL DISCLOSURE CONTEXT 2002 (1) Full Disclosure Implementation Group has extended the remit to include documentary collections in museums, retrospective cataloguing, and the potential for collection-level solutions Full Disclosure Prioritisation Study stresses the role of collection description as a first step towards prioritisation and the collection as the basic input to the Prioritisation Assessment Matrix

Collection Description in Context THE FULL DISCLOSURE CONTEXT 2002 (2) ‘While disclosure of collections at item-level as the fullest level of description is the ultimate aim of the Full Disclosure initiative, there is a widely held view, across all three domains, that collection level description could be regarded as an essential first step in identifying priorities for more detailed retrospective conversion, cataloguing and documentation work … Collection level description … allows individual institutions the opportunity to assess their own holdings - their value, significance and priority - in the wider national or regional context’ (paragraph 2.8) ‘Institutions should identify and prioritise those collections that remain entirely uncatalogued, using the Prioritisation Assessment Matrix …’ (paragraph 2.1)

Collection Description in Context THE FULL DISCLOSURE CONTEXT 2002 (3) ‘To ensure that diversity of views on defining “collections” does not impede collaboration … institutions should adopt pragmatic and flexible attitudes; disclosure and increasing public access should remain the overriding aims’ (paragraph 2.2) [recognising concerns about differing approaches and standards to collection description] ‘Collection description and location (mapping) as a centrally coordinated activity is already a strategic objective for Resource. An implementation agency now needs to be identified, capable of taking this coordination forward’ (paragraph 2.8)

Collection Description in Context THE FULL DISCLOSURE CONTEXT 2002 (4) ‘A starting point for making judgements about the relationships between collections is an effective description of the collection as a whole … Applicants should, therefore, be able to demonstrate that the collections to be covered by the retrospective cataloguing or conversion are adequately described in an appropriate collection description scheme. Where no such scheme exists, this fact should be noted’ (paragraph 3.3.1)

Collection Description in Context THE BRITISH LIBRARY CONTEXT RESOURCE DISCOVERY (1) 150 million physical collection items growing at the rate of 3 million or 12 km a year December 2001 audit of cataloguing requirements extends to 30 pages and covers data enhancement, retrospective conversion and backlog reduction needs, at a likely cost of around £20 million March 2002 initial prioritisation of these needs by curatorial departments costed at £5 million over three years April 2002 Library allocates £0.7 million over two years to backlog reduction and retrospective conversion measures for physical items

Collection Description in Context THE BRITISH LIBRARY CONTEXT RESOURCE DISCOVERY (2) Digital collecting is growing significantly, not least under the voluntary deposit scheme since January 2000, with a real prospect of the extension of legal deposit legislation in 2002/3 Comprehensive and early item-level cataloguing of all holdings looks problematical, and some collections (for example, philatelic) seem destined not to be catalogued at all at that level Given that increased access through catalogues is a strategic priority, serious consideration is being given to the potential of collection-level cataloguing to provide a first level of access to otherwise undisclosed material

Collection Description in Context THE BRITISH LIBRARY CONTEXT RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Emerging British Library collection development policy will inevitably have to depend upon collection-level analyses Collaborative collection development, both bilaterally between the British Library and individual organisations and through any implementation of a distributed national collection, will equally have to be built up at collection level British Library life-cycle collection management framework and policy will be collections-based

Collection Description in Context WHY COLLECTION DESCRIPTION? (1) Cost-effective route into high-level mapping of national research resources, given the impossibility of describing machine-readably all those resources at item level in the foreseeable future Enables collections to be described, searched and retrieved across domains and thus transcends the boundaries of domain- specific cataloguing formats and standards Enables collections to be described, searched and retrieved regardless of whether they are in physical, digital or hybrid formats

Collection Description in Context WHY COLLECTION DESCRIPTION? (2) Informs the prioritisation for item-level cataloguing Facilitates collaborative collection development and underpins the creation of the distributed national collection Facilitates the creation of virtual collections through digitisation

Collection Description in Context WHY NOT COLLECTION DESCRIPTION? THE CHALLENGE FOR TODAY’S BRIEFING No consensus about the attributes which define a collection Ongoing diversity of approaches, schemas and standards to collection-level description No ‘single’ cross-searchable catalogue of collection-level descriptions Residual belief among information professionals that collection- level description is a second best and inadequate for scholars Uncertain buy-in from scholars to the value and utility of collection- level descriptions