John MacColl, European DirectorOCLC Research

National Library of Wales29 October 2008

OCLC Research – an overview and update

OCLC Research – an overview and update

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OCLC Research

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OCLC Membership

RLG Partnership

OCLC Enterprise

OCLC Research servesOCLC Research serves

RLG/OCLC: From WorldCat to Wealth of NationsRLG/OCLC: From WorldCat to Wealth of Nations

• The research library is the expression of the power of the aggregate

• It draws its power from the collective wealth of libraries

• We receive as we contribute• Libraries are switches for sharing• Local Group Global• Publishers within the cooperative!• Inversion of traditional functional arrangement• How do we design, engineer and lubricate this

vision?• This is the role of OCLC Research within OCLC

OCLC ResearchOCLC Research

• San Mateo, California• 12 Program Officers• Vice President• Administrative support

• Dublin, Ohio• Communications Team • Vice President• 20 Research Scientists• Research Assistants• Administrative Support

• St Andrews, Scotland• Director, Europe

RLG Partners - GeographyRLG Partners - Geography

Japan1Middle East

2

Australia andNew Zealand

4

UK, Ireland & Continental Europe

27

NorthAmerica

100

Our PartnersOur Partners

American Academy in Rome American Antiquarian Society American Museum of Natural History American Philosophical Society American

University in Cairo American University of Sharjah Amon Carter Museum Arizona State University Art Institute of Chicago Athenaeum of

Philadelphia Bard Graduate Center/Bard College Biblioteca Nacional de España Bibliothèque nationale de France Binghamton University, State University of New York Boston Public Library Boston University Pappas Law Library Brandeis University Brigham Young University British Library Brooklyn Museum John Carter Brown Library at Brown University California Digital Library California Historical Society Canadian Centre for Architecture Center for Jewish History Chemical Heritage Foundation Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Cleveland Museum of

Art Columbia University Cornell University Courtauld Institute of Art Direction des Archives de France Duke University

Emory University Fashion Institute of Technology Florida State University Folger Shakespeare Library Fordham University Leo T. Kissam

Memorial Law Library The Frick Collection and Frick Art Reference Library George Washington University Jacob Burns Law Library Getty Research Institute Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Hagley Museum and Library Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology Hebrew

Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens Imperial College of Science,

Technology, and Medicine Indiana University BloomingtonInstitute for Advanced Study International Institute of Social History (Netherlands) Keio University Kimbell Art Museum King's College London Library Company of Philadelphia Library of Congress Library of Virginia London School of Economics Los Angeles County Law Library Metropolitan Museum of Art Minnesota Historical Society Museum of the American West Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Museum of Modern Art National Archives and Records Administration

National Gallery of Art National Gallery of Canada National Library of Australia National Library of New Zealand

National Library of Scotland Natural History Museum (UK) Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Newberry Library The New School

(university) New York Academy of Medicine New York Botanical Garden New-York Historical Society New York Public Library New York State

Office of Cultural Education New York University Oregon State University Pennsylvania State University Philadelphia Museum of Art Princeton University Rice University Rockefeller Archive Center (Rockefeller University) Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Rutgers University School of Oriental

and African Studies Smithsonian Institution Southern Methodist University Underwood Law Library Stanford University Stony Brook

University, State University of New York St. Louis Art Museum Swarthmore College Swiss National Library Syracuse University Temple

University Trinity College Dublin University of Aberdeen University of Alberta University of Arizona University of British Columbia Asian Library

University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis, Law Library University of California, Los Angeles University of Cambridge University of Chicago University of Edinburgh University of Florida University of GlasgowUniversity of Glasgow University of Iowa Law Library University of

Liverpool University of Manchester University of Maryland University of Melbourne University of Miami University of Michigan

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities University of Oxford University of Pennsylvania University of Southern California University of Sydney

University of Texas at Austin University of Toronto University of Warwick University of Washington Victoria and Albert Museum Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine Yale University Yeshiva University

Value to existing PartnersValue to existing Partners

• Beginning of a new phase of its existence• Significant work was done as RLG - in standards for

cataloguing, standards for archival description, digital preservation and organisation of cultural materials

• One of the most significant achievements was the creation of an international group of high quality research institutions

• Wonderful foundation for the next phase• New phase is required because of landscape

upheaval

UrgencyUrgency

• The last 2-3 years have seen significant changes in the environment (Perceptions Report)

• Respondents use search engines to begin an information search (84 percent). One percent begin an information search on a library web site. (Part 1.2)

• Search engines are rated higher than librarians. (Part 2.6)• Respondents do not trust purchased information more than

free information. The verbatim comments suggest a high expectation of free information. (Part 3.4)

• Library users like to self-serve. Most respondents do not seek assistance when using library resources. (Part 2.4)

• Huge impact on expectations – including those of researchers

Information consumer behavioursInformation consumer behaviours

• Network-level aggregation of supply and demand• Personal collections• ‘Wild’ users• Social media & social networking

Image: informationarchitects.jp/web-trend-map-2008-beta/

Be where the users areBe where the users are

‘Discovery happens elsewhere’

Source: alexa.com

Most visited sites on the web

1st ……………. Yahoo!2nd ……………. Google3rd ……………. YouTube4th ……………. WindowsLive5th ……………. Facebook6th ……………. MSN7th ……………. Myspace8th ……………. Wikipedia9th ……………. Blogger10th ……………. Yahoo! Japan……………………..1,377th .……… Harvard Libraries4,444th .……… University of Cambridge7,999th …….. worldcat.org19,974th ……… British Library307,564th …… National Library of Scotland598,863rd ……. National Library of Wales

One way to get into the users’ flow

Consolidate low-use printPool licensing purchase power

Move into research flows

Curation/Preservation

Locally-curated digital content

The changing economics of academic library expenditure: a prediction

The changing economics of academic library expenditure: a prediction

Revenues of key playersRevenues of key players

Source: Michael Jubb, RIN. Conference on Sustaining the Digital Library, Edinburgh, September 2007

23.4

5.3

1.5

7.5

0.5

3.41.7

0

5

10

15

20

25

£bn

Microsoft

Google

Elsevier

All journalpublishers

SCONUL libraries

UK ScienceBudget

Funding Councils(Research)

The resource contextThe resource context

• Profits: Microsoft ~£7bn, Google ~£1.8bn• Microsoft expenditure on R&D is equal to the UK Science

Budget (£3.4bn); Google’s is ~£1bn• UK national and university libraries’ total expenditure is

less than half Google’s R&D spend• Even in the US and Canada, the total spend of the relatively

well-endowed ARL libraries amounts only to £1.8bn• “So an obvious point to make here is that, in a context where

commercial companies are clearly already players in the business of developing, providing, and sustaining digital content, it would be foolish to cut ourselves off from the resources that they have available to invest”

Source: Michael Jubb, RIN. Conference on Sustaining the Digital Library, Edinburgh, September 2007

ImperativesImperatives

• Be where they are • Services built for them, by them – get used

• Convenience beats quality; sharing beats privacy• User configurability

• People want control over their own experiences

• Personal collections• Mashups, repurposing, piracy

• Putting content out there (disclosure) so it can be consumed in many different ways

Being awake in a web worldBeing awake in a web world

• Library services need to be rethought for the web architecture

• Resources not repositories (Herbert Van de Sompel)

• ‘Usage Factor’ becomes the new ‘Impact Factor’

• The ‘reader’ is an ‘e-shopper’

• Employing the ‘hive mind’; users as contributors and fact-checkers

• Bold initiatives are better taken jointly

• No longer just about shared cataloguing• Office of Research now joined with RLG to form

OCLC Research• Providing leadership and focus from a research

library agenda• OCLC is being transformed

The Greene-Meissner contributionThe Greene-Meissner contribution

• ‘Cataloguing is a function which is not working’• Forget item level description• “Insanity is when you do things the way you’ve

always done them, but expect a different result” (Einstein and/or Emerson)

• ‘Good enough’ beats perfection• Hail ‘the demise of the completeness

syndrome’ (Ross Atkinson)

Fulfilment?Fulfilment?

Fulfilment!Fulfilment!

The Erway-Schaffner contributionThe Erway-Schaffner contribution

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Access wins!Access wins!

• No one has been throwing away No one has been throwing away originals … so preservation needs are originals … so preservation needs are best served by thembest served by them

• Only by surfacing presently ignored Only by surfacing presently ignored collections can we justify their collections can we justify their preservationpreservation

• Our brave new world shows we Our brave new world shows we cancan go go back and do it againback and do it again

Handle once (then iterate)Handle once (then iterate)

• Handle incoming items Handle incoming items once once for both for both description and digitisationdescription and digitisation

• Compromise on image resolution and Compromise on image resolution and metadata as needed to achieve throughput metadata as needed to achieve throughput requirementsrequirements

• Create a single unified processCreate a single unified process• Let usage guide further effortsLet usage guide further efforts

Programmes not projectsProgrammes not projects

• Forget ‘special projects’ — it’s long past Forget ‘special projects’ — it’s long past time to make this a basic part of our time to make this a basic part of our everyday work!everyday work!

• Digital capture must be embedded in our Digital capture must be embedded in our basic procedures, budgeting, etc.basic procedures, budgeting, etc.

• Figure out a way to fund it yourself and Figure out a way to fund it yourself and you’ll figure out a way to do it cheaperyou’ll figure out a way to do it cheaper

Change in Photoduplication PolicyAs of March 17, 2008, the Ransom Center's policy regarding research copies of items from its collections will change. We will no longer furnish photocopies. For all requests received on or after March 17, our default procedure will be to make digital scans of the originals and furnish PDF files (72 dpi) either by email or on CD-ROM. For patrons who are unable to make use of PDFs, printouts will be available in lieu of digital files.

For publication purposes, high-resolution images will still be furnished on the same terms as before.

Harry Ransom Center, UT Austin

Scan on demandScan on demand

Engage your community in descriptionEngage your community in description

• Do not describe everything in painstaking Do not describe everything in painstaking detaildetail

• Start with basic description, then…Start with basic description, then…• ……allow serious researchers to contact you allow serious researchers to contact you

for more detail, and…for more detail, and…• ……engage your user community with adding engage your user community with adding

to the descriptionsto the descriptions

January 16th 2008: LC photographs on FlickrJanuary 16th 2008: LC photographs on Flickr

24 hours later24 hours later

Exposure

Impact: exposureImpact: exposure

Flickr: Top 50LC: Top 6000

Contributio

ns

How to lose control

Go with itGo with it

Feeding back into our workFeeding back into our work

89 records updated

Quality vs quantity: quantity wins!Quality vs quantity: quantity wins!

• The perfect has been the enemy of the The perfect has been the enemy of the good - and the possiblegood - and the possible

• Achieving excellence can have a substantial Achieving excellence can have a substantial costcost

• Any access is better than none at allAny access is better than none at all• Instead of measuring cataloguer/archivist Instead of measuring cataloguer/archivist

output we should be measuring impact on output we should be measuring impact on usersusers

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change.”

——Charles Charles Darwin

Image: Auckland Museum

ConcentrationA web-scale presenceMobilise data

DiffusionDisclosure of links, data and services

Scale mattersScale matters

Possibilities with web-scale library dataPossibilities with web-scale library data

Possibilities with web-scale library dataPossibilities with web-scale library data

Work Agenda Programmes

• Research Information Management• Managing the Collective Collection• Renovating Descriptive and Organizing

Practices• Effectively Disclose Archives and Special

Collections• Modelling New Service Infrastructures• Measurements and Behaviours• Architecture and Standards

Research Information Management

• Workflows in Research Assessment • Survey of Current Practice

• Support for the Research Process• Academic Research Landscape• Personal Research Collections

Managing the Collective Collection

• Shared Print Collections• Deaccession Materials Held in Print and Electronic Form• Define Policy and Infrastructure Requirements for Building and Managing Shared Print

Collections• Data Mining for Management Intelligence and New Services• Commission a White Paper that Provides an Annotated Inventory of Library Data

Sources• Analyze Multi-Institutional Aggregated Data to Illuminate the System-Wide LAM

Landscape• Systematize Aggregation and Analysis Techniques

• Museum Collection Sharing • Collection Descriptions in Natural

History Institutions• Museum Data Exchange

• Library, Archive and Museum Collaboration

• Survey Organizational/Service Relationship between Libraries, Archives and Museums among Partners

Effectively Disclose Archives and Special Collections

• Assess Archival Backlog Survey Tools Project

• Analyze Existing Open Source EAD Creation and Editing Tools Project

• Define the State of Holdings and Description for Archives Project

• Define the State of “Hidden Collections” for Archives Project

• Analyze Specialized Archival Discovery Environments to Find Data Elements that Optimize Discovery of Archival Materials Project

• Synthesize the Current State of Delivery Practices for Archives and Special Collections Increase the Scale of Special Collections Digitization

Renovate Descriptive & Organizing Practices

• Make Metadata Creation Processes More Effective• Share Best Practices for Streamlining Metadata Creation

Workflows• Gather Evidence to Inform Changes Needed in Metadata

Practices

• Network Controlled Vocabularies• Prototype a Cooperative

‘Identities Hub’• Prototype a ‘Publisher

Name Server’

Modelling New Service Infrastructures

• Create New Structures and Service Areas • Define Library Systems Data Service Layer• Explore RLG Partner Interests in Terminologies Services

• Build Prototypes/Software to Showcase and Demonstrate New Service Possibilities• Enhance Disclosure at the Network Level

Measurements & Behaviours

• Gain a Better Understanding of End-User Behaviours • Public Service Trends in Special Collections

• Work with Partners to Establish a Shared Understanding of Researcher Behaviours • Convene an Event for Sharing

and Discussing User Studies

Architecture & Standards

• Lead and/or Participate in Both Formal and Informal Standards Efforts, Representing Library, Archive and Museum Interests • Engage in Standards and Best Technical Practices• Requirements for Persistent Identifiers• Influence the Proposed EAC Standard

The cooperative imperativeThe cooperative imperative

• WorldCat represented cooperation in cataloguing

• Just the beginning?• We need to continue to leverage the

investment in new and imaginative ways• NextGen metadata• eContent synchronisation

The European perspectiveThe European perspective

• Venue• Paris conference• Video-conferencing (1st half

of 2009)

• Voice• Program Council: Anne Murray (Cambridge);

Caroline Brazier (British Library)• Projects - involvement• Business intelligence. Developments in 1st half of

2009• Team blog

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Recent reports and publicationsRecent reports and publications

• Smith-Yoshimura, Karen. RLG Programs Descriptive Metadata Practices Survey Results

• Kaufman, Peter and Ubois, Jeff. "Good Terms—Improving Commercial-Noncommercial Partnerships for Mass Digitization; A Report Prepared by Intelligent Television for RLG Programs, OCLC Programs and Research." D-Lib Magazine, 13,11/12

• Payne, Lizanne. Library Storage Facilities and the Future of Print Collections in North America

• Erway, Ricky, and Schaffner, Jennifer. Shifting Gears: Gearing Up to Get Into the Flow

To find out moreTo find out more

Thank YouThank YouJohn MacCollmaccollj@oclc.orgOCLC Research