1. How Leeds University Library is using the Copac Tools Maureen Pinder Wesline conference 2 nd September 2013

2. What we’re trying to do at Leeds We’re trying to categorise our collections: –Heritage, legacy, self-renewing, finite Drivers: –Space/weeding decisions –Focus spending on most important areas –Prioritisation for digitisation and physical conservation –Aid decision making for collaborative collection management

3. Our initial approach Gathered expert opinion from relevant librarians and retired librarians Identified academics who know collections well Created Access database to store decisions, with rationale The downside: –slow –subjective –no expertise in some areas Needed hard facts/stats on which to base decisions

4. Copac Tools Project JISC funded project –Phase 1 2010/11 –Phase 2 2011/12 –Phase 3 2012/13 –Current phase: tools available to all RLUK members Aim to develop tools to improve collection management decisions Partners: RLUK, MIMAS, Leeds, Sheffield, York, plus associate partners at different stages

5. What the Tool does It allows you to compare your collection with other libraries in Copac Different partners were using it for different purposes: –To get a profile allowing them to understand the strengths of their collection (Leeds and York) –To know for certain which materials in a collection are common nationally, so that they could weed safely (Sheffield and Manchester) – To get information of their collection they can use for fundraising (UCL)

6. The process Decide which collection or bit of collection you want to examine Create a review file in your Library Management System Output a list of ISBNs from this review file, and upload into the Copac Tool: http://copac.ac.uk:8020/test/http://copac.ac.uk:8020/test/ Run the search and then export your results into Excel, and save locally Manipulate the data to pull out the specific information you want

8. What the results look like 1: how many libraries hold titles

9. What the results look like 2: how many of the books are in each library

10. And how did we make sense of the results? We collected key indicators in a table, which allowed us to compare them We gradually worked towards a realisation that a collection meeting one of the following measures was potentially ‘heritage’/worthy of further investigation: –15% or more of the titles are in 3 libraries or less –21% or more of the titles are in 4 libraries or less –2 or fewer libraries hold 2/3 of the titles

11. Conclusions so far about our collections Chemistry is widespread in the country, but Colour Chemistry is rare Transport is rare Communications Studies is widespread, but the journalism section is much stronger French, German, Spanish and Portuguese seem very strong – but we only have partial results Icelandic is very rare – but only partial results Health Sciences seems to be widespread

12. But approach with caution This only compares our collection with Copac libraries If the subject might be well represented in non-Copac libraries, the results might give a false picture, e.g. nursing There may be uncatalogued material in the Copac libraries which would make a significant difference to results Poor quality catalogue records might lead to an item not being found No guarantee the other libraries will keep their copies, or that they’re in good physical condition

13. Where we are now The Tool only gives reliable results for items with ISBNs So we can’t tackle our potentially most interesting collections in Arts, Social Sciences and Science We’re waiting for the launch of a new Copac database, which will allow us to search on other criteria reliably – this winter? National issues: Need agreed system for flagging physical condition and intention to keep Need a body to lead this – RLUK? Jisc report on national monograph collections due Dec. 2013

14. Further information For more information on all phases of the Copac Tools project go to www.copac.ac.uk, then to Innovations and then Collections Management: http://copac.ac.uk/innovations/collections-management/www.copac.ac.uk http://copac.ac.uk/innovations/collections-management/ Instructions on using the Tools can be found in the Sheffield and York-Leeds workflow documents under Phase 2.