Serving Research: the RLG Partnership and OCLC Research

Serving Research: the RLG Partnership and OCLC Research

November 17, 2008

John MacCollEuropean Director

RLG PartnershipOCLC Research

November 2009

OCLC ResearchOCLC Research

RLG Partners - GeographyRLG Partners - Geography

Japan1Middle East

2

Australia andNew Zealand

4

UK, Ireland & Continental Europe

23

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 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 Bloomington Institute 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 Glasgow University of Iowa Law Library University of Leeds 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 St Andrews 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 

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Our business is at riskOur business is at risk

Legacy Technology

Human Resources

Value Proposition

Durable Goods

Intellectual Property

… a reduced sense of library relevance from below, above, and within

… uncertainties about adequate preparation, adaptability, capacity for leadership in face of change

… changing value of library collections and space; prices go up, value goes down – accounting doesn’t acknowledge the change

… managing and maintaining legacy systems is a challenge; replacement parts are hard to find

… losing some traditional assets to commercial providers (e.g. Google Books) and failing to assume clear ownership stake in others (e.g. local scholarly outputs)

RLG Partnership themesRLG Partnership themes

Japan1Middle East

2

Australia andNew Zealand

4

UK, Ireland & Continental Europe

23

NothAmerica

100

Behaviours Resources Operations

Aggregation Scale

Network effects

UniformityThings to stop

Use user power Research research

Prioritise the unique Take advantage of

aggregation

We are now in a race to remain relevant to researchers

We are now in a race to remain relevant to researchers

• ‘Cataloguing is a function which is not working’ (Greene-Meissner)

• 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• Let go of ‘the completeness

syndrome’ (Ross Atkinson)

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The uniform and the unique (scalar confusion)The uniform and the unique (scalar confusion)

Yale University

The Google barThe Google bar

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Selection has already been doneSelection has already been done

Woodcut from Sebastian Brant, “Stultifera…” The ship of fooles… 1570Edinburgh University Library

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

Example: Scan on demandExample: Scan on demand

Combine approaches

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

Be where the (broad) users areBe where the (broad) users are

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

Innovative mashingInnovative mashing

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Be where the (deep) users areBe where the (deep) users are

Rick Luce: ARL/CNI presentation on the future support of eResearch, October 2008

The workflow layer: uniformity and uniquenessThe workflow layer: uniformity and uniqueness

User complexityUser complexity

accessingassessingchaining

disseminatingnetworking

Interdisciplinaryprobing

translating

Humanities Sciences direct searching scanningco-authoring coordinating monitoring data-sharing

browsing collecting

re-reading assembling

consulting note-taking

Adapted from C. Palmer, L. Teffau, C. Pirmann (2009) ?

Researcher environmentsResearcher environments

Researcher

Domain

Institution

Tools & Content

Assessment Regime

Other Researchers

Mobilising Unique MaterialsMobilising Unique Materials

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Expectation, aggregationExpectation, aggregation

The elephant in the sectorThe elephant in the sector

The power of datamining

(2005)

Rareness is common …

Registry

Transfers

Borrowing System

SharedCollections

Withdrawals

Retrievals Commitments

Holdings

Loans

Disclose

Aggregate holdings and joint commitments

constitute a shared assetenabling collaborative

management strategies

ProceduresPolicies

InfrastructureAssets

Local Collections

Off-Site Collections

ReCAP

DigitizedLibrary Collections

The ‘Cloud Library’The ‘Cloud Library’

Optimisation at the network levelOptimisation at the network level

Increase the gravitational power of namesIncrease the gravitational power of names

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Keeping upKeeping up

Above the FoldQuarterly HighlightsPublished reports BlogsWeb siteWebinarsPodcastsNews feed

Partnership workingPartnership working

Thank YouThank You

John MacCollmaccollj@oclc.orgOCLC Research