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A Systemwide View of Library Collections: Brian Lavoie, OCLC Research Roger C. Schonfeld, Ithaka
A Systemwide View of Library Collections: Brian Lavoie, OCLC Research Roger C. Schonfeld, Ithaka
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Mass Digitization
Great deal of public and private investment in digitization programs e.g., JSTOR, ARTstor and of course mass digitization spearheaded via GooglePrint Digitization opportunities unlimited; resources are not
How to determine priorities? What programs of digitization will be necessary to meet the needs of the scholarly community?
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Print Preservation
From a systemwide perspective, what preservation framework makes most sense for print resources? How have preservation frameworks changed over time? As retrospective materials become increasingly available in digital form, will new frameworks for print preservation be necessary?
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Instead, we thought to take advantage of the WorldCat resource which affords the broadest view of print collections to build a bridge from a local perspective to the beginnings of a systemwide perspective
Todays presentation focuses on print books
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Data Sources
WorldCat: worlds largest and most comprehensive bibliographic database
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Data Source Limitations Not all published materials are cataloged in WorldCat
Not all library holdings are represented in WorldCat Largely reflects North American library collections So WorldCat does not embody the whole universe of library collections and holdings but its a very good approximation!
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Size Age
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40,000,000
30,000,000
20,000,000
10,000,000
0 Total WorldCat Records Language-based or manuscript monographs, excluding government documents and theses/dissertations, in print format only
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30,000,000
20,000,000
10,000,000
0 Total WorldCat Records Language-based or manuscript monographs Language-based or manuscript monographs, excluding government documents and theses/dissertations, in print format only
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35,251,000
30,000,000
20,000,000
10,000,000
0 Total WorldCat Records Language-based or manuscript Language-based or manuscript Language-based or manuscript monographs monographs, excluding monographs, excluding government documents and government documents and theses/dissertations theses/dissertations, in print format only
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20,000,000
10,000,000
0 Total WorldCat Records Language-based or manuscript Language-based or manuscript Language-based or manuscript monographs monographs, excluding monographs, excluding government documents and government documents and theses/dissertations theses/dissertations, in print format only
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e.g., Macbeth e.g., Macbeth, Folger Shakespeare Library edition, published in paperback by Washington Square Press (2004)
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20,000,000
15,000,000
10,000,000
5,000,000
0 Manifestations Works Language-based or manuscript monographs, excluding government documents and theses/dissertations, in print format only
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20,000,000
15,000,000
10,000,000
5,000,000 121,689 0 Manifestations Works Digital Manifestations Language-based or manuscript monographs, excluding government documents and theses/dissertations, in print format only
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20,000,000
15,000,000
10,000,000
5,000,000
0
1700 1710 1720 1730 1740 1750 1760 1770 1780 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
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600,000
500,000
400,000
300,000
200,000
100,000
0
1700 1710 1720 1730 1740 1750 1760 1770 1780 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000
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Minimal Overlap
30 25 20 15 10 5 0
1 or more 2 or more 3 or more 4 or more 5 or more 6 or more 7 or more 8 or more 9 or more 10 or 100 or more more
Number of Libraries
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7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
10 or more 50 or more 100 or more 200 or more 300 or more 400 or more 500 or more
Number of Libraries
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24%
9% 6% 4% 2% 2% 1%
Number of Libraries
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Forthcoming paper from OCLC researchers that will offer some perspective on these questions Hopefully, work like this will help to establish set of important questions/metrics that need to be addressed when:
Considering digitization initiatives Considering implications of a changing world of research and learning for collections
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1 holding 37%
2 holdings 14%
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12,000,000
10,000,000
8,000,000
6,000,000
4,000,000
2,000,000
0 1 holding 2 holdings 3 holdings 4 holdings 5 holdings 6 to 10 holdings 11 to 20 holdings 21-50 holdings 51-100 holdings 100+ holdings
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Average Holdings
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1801-1810
1811-1820
1821-1830
1831-1840
1841-1850
1851-1860
1861-1870
1871-1880
1881-1890
1891-1900
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1911-1920
1921-1930
1931-1940
1941-1950
1951-1960
1961-1970
1971-1980
1981-1990
1991-2000
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Of Works with Multiple Holdings, Steady Increase Through the 1960s in the Proportion Held Many Times
100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 1000+ 400 to 1000 201 to 400 101 to 200 51 to 100 11 to 50 2 to 10
1801-1810
1811-1820
1821-1830
1831-1840
1841-1850
1851-1860
1861-1870
1871-1880
1881-1890
1891-1900
1901-1910
1911-1920
1921-1930
1931-1940
1941-1950
1951-1960
1961-1970
1971-1980
1981-1990
1991-2000
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Summary: Findings
1. Roughly 26 million print title works, represented in 32 million print title manifestations, are held by OCLC member libraries. This should be seen as a minimum in considering the number of printed books over time. Half of the books date from the period since 1977. How can a mass digitization strategy effectively manage the intellectual property ramifications of this finding? Publications are distributed across a wide number of libraries, and any mass digitization strategy that ignores this distributional reality is likely to omit numerous works. How should this finding impact the library systems planning for a massive format migration?
2.
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Summary: Findings
3. Rareness is very common within the system. This has been recognized by many librarians but is not always taken into account in policy development. How will any future print preservation strategy address this reality? Can data on rareness help to inform digitization strategies?
4.
Redundancy in holdings across the system has changed over time. How has this led our framework for preservation to become more or less secure? What lessons should be drawn as we consider other print preservation strategies, particularly in the era of mass digitization, such as paper repositories? What lessons might there be for digital preservation?
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More information
More in-depth article forthcoming Contact us with comments and questions: Brian Lavoie: lavoie@oclc.org Roger C. Schonfeld: rcs@ithaka.org