Explores how library collections have been, are and will be built in the context of changing information-seeking behavior, changes in the nature of collections, the social web, and new enabling technology.

1. What Does It Mean to
Have Collections?
Karen Calhoun
Library - University of Calgary
October 15, 2015

2. RossAtkinson,1946-2006
Community,Collaboration,andCollections
Why have we built collections?
Collection development means
“to privilege particular objects
as being more useful or reliable
than others”
How is privileging possible when
the universe is accessible in 5
seconds?
Do we know what the collection
is?
10/15/2015
2
Photo: @Uphoto 2003. Used with permission.
Atkinson, Ross. 2005. “Introduction for the Break-Out Sessions:
Six Key Challenges for the Future of Collection Development.”
In Janus Conference on Research Library Collections, October 9-11, 2005.
Ithaca, NY. http://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/2608

3. University of Calgary
Foundational
Commitments
Source: Thomas Hickerson, Vice Provost, Libraries and Cultural Resources, University of Calgary

4. • Enhanced student learning
environment
Enrich Quality of
LEARNING
• University partnerships in
interdisciplinary research
• Dissemination of scholarly knowledge
• Research data stewardship
Sharpen Focus on
RESEARCH AND
SCHOLARSHIP
• Cultural enrichment of campus and
community
Integrate the
University and the
COMMUNITY
University-wide
Commitments
Source: Thomas Hickerson, Vice Provost, Libraries and Cultural Resources, University of Calgary

5. LCR NEXT
Enabling
Capacities
Agile
Workforce
Reimagining
spaces
Collaborative
leadership
Technological
Advances
Fundraising
and
Research
Funding
Distinctive
Collections
Source: Thomas Hickerson, Vice Provost, Libraries and Cultural Resources, University of Calgary

6. Think about the role of the library collections, both physical and online, in the
context of the university-wide commitments
To learning
To research and scholarship
To the community
To achieve this, we need to think about:
Information-seeking behaviors and preferences (how and where do people look for information?)
Library collections management (why, how and where do we build and manage collections?)
Enabling technology (what infrastructure do we need?)
10/15/2015 6
This talk in context

7. Braced for change…
embracing change?
Information seeking
10/15/2015
7

8. An early earthquake
89
2
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Search engine Library Web site
Percent
Where Search Begins
Where do you begin an online search for information
on a topic?
(2005) College Students’ Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources:
a Report to the OCLC Membership:
http://www.oclc.org/reports/perceptionscollege.htm
10/15/2015 8

9. Empoweringconnectionsandconversations
inanentirelynewway
10/15/2015 9
Photo: By Kris Krug. Untitled. Licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA. Flickr Commons. https://flic.kr/p/bsty4b

10. 10/15/2015 10
Strong preference for full text and media, other Web
content
Some are familiar with bibliographic data/tools, many
are not (and find what they want anyway?)
Personal and professional networking are important
aspects of information seeking
30 second review of what we know

11. 10/15/2015 11
The larger context: knowledge management
Knowledge communities “interpret information about
the environment in order to construct meaning …
create new knowledge by converting and combining
the expertise and know-how of their members …
[and] analyze information in order to select and commit
to appropriate courses of action.”—Chun Wei Choo,
professor of Information Studies, University of Toronto
The Knowing Organization: How Organizations Use Information to Construct
Meaning, Create Knowledge, and Make Decisions (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1998), xii.

12. 10/15/2015 12
Knowledge creation and social networks
“Improving efficiency and effectiveness in
knowledge-intensive work demands more
than sophisticated technologies—it requires
attending to the often idiosyncratic ways that
people seek out knowledge, learn from and
solve problems with other people.”—Rob Cross,
University of Virginia
Rob Cross et al., “Knowing what we know” Organizational Dynamics 30, no. 2
(November 2001), 101.

13. 10/15/2015 13
Implications
Students and faculty engage in information network processes
with or without libraries
Libraries have the opportunity to engage more proactively with
teachers and learners
Libraries and librarians need to better understand how the
social web and information seeking styles contribute to
learning, teaching, and research

14. Beingwheretheireyesare
10/15/2015 14
Users are discovering relevant
resources outside library systems
Users expect discovery and delivery
to coincide
Usage of portable devices is
expanding
Discovery increasingly happens
through recommending
Users increasingly rely on emerging
nontraditional information objects
Trends
“Discoverability” Report: University of Minnesota Libraries, February 2009
http://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/48258

15. Embedding collections in the web
10/15/2015
15
?

16. Wikipedia
Monthly Unique Visitors,
Smithsonian Archives of
American Art vs. Wikipedia
Smithsonia
AAA
Wikipedia
Wikipedia Loves Libraries 2013 - Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon with
Smithsonian Staff. Washington DC. https://vimeo.com/78005986
Sraumsheim, Carl. 2015. “Wiki Worker Wanted.”
Inside Higher Ed. July 17.
Kastrenakes, Jacob. 2014. “Harvard Wants to
Hire a Wikipedia Editor to Be Its ‘Wikipedian
in Residence.’” The Verge. March 12.

17. Changing Collections
10/15/2015

18. Why have we built collections?
10/15/2015 18
Institutional asset
• Collections
attract scholars,
support, funding
• Prestige
• Implies separate,
competitive
collections …
• While collections
are becoming
less
institutionally
based
Preservation
• Ensure long-
term access
• “Memory”
• Aspect of
research library
mission least
likely to change
• But many
materials now
needing
preservation are
outside the
boundaries of
traditional
libraries
“Privileging”
• Collection
development
• Certain
information
objects are more
worthy of
attention than
others
• Information
universe now
immense –
problems of
scope and scale
Atkinson 2005, p. 2-4

19. Trendingdown,trendingup
Print
E-resources
Offsite storage
Mass digitization
New kinds of content on web
Special collections and archives
New models of collection management

20. The print collections in academic research libraries
“The books had
come to clutter the
library”
10/15/2015 20
Photo: "OSU William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library East Atrium" by Ibagli – Own work. Licensed under Public Domain
via Wikimedia Commons.
Quote: Biemiller, Lawrence. 2007. “Library Renovation at Ohio State U. Promises More Space, but Fewer Books.”
The Chronicle of Higher Education. July 10. http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Library-Renovation-at%20Ohio/4700.

21. What If …
… Libraries could more readily share the effort and costs of managing their
legacy print collections?
10/15/2015 21

22. Mass digitization
Google 5 (2004) and the Google Library Project
Harvard, University of Michigan, Stanford, University of Oxford, New York Public Library
33% of the “system-wide book collection” at that time (Lavoie, Connaway, Dempsey 2005)
Europeana
HathiTrust
Open legal issues
New possibilities for individual and collaborative library collection management
10/15/2015 22

23. What If…
10/15/2015 23
… Libraries could more collectively manage collection
analysis, print storage facilities, choices of what to preserve,
by whom, and how?
… Libraries could collectively create new collections or
research tools?

24. What If…
We could cooperate to move from isolated
collections to interoperable ones?
We shifted effort to discovery and integrated
access?
10/15/2015 24

25. 10/15/2015 25
Attracting use and users of digital collections
National Library of Australia, 2009-
Free search engine http://trove.nla.gov.au/
Massive amount of content: 435M items as of July 2015
Over 1,000 Australian libraries, archives, museums contribute
Many types of content
• Heavily used (70K people/day)
• 327th most used website in Australia (July 2015)
• Social engagement/contribution a core feature
• “Collaboration with users is key”
• Content widely discoverable in common tools
• “Getting our collection material into our users’
online spaces”
• “Free[ing] content from [its] institutional
backyard”
Where do Trove’s visitors come from?
Trove is a popular destination site but …
39.2% of searches come from mega-sites
Sources of information for this slide: Trove site; Holley, Rose. 2010. “Trove: Innovation in Access to Information in Australia.” Ariadne,
no. 64. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue64/holley; Sweeney, Shahida. 2014. “National Library of Australia Invests in Digital Future.”
CIO Australia, September 26. http://www.cio.com.au/article/556019/national-library-australia-invests-digital-future/; Data from
Alexa.com on 7/17/2015 - http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/http%3A%2F%2Ftrove.nla.gov.au

26. Enabling technology
10/15/2015

27. Review to this point
•Libraries, library collections, and the catalogs that represent them
are competing for attention with disruptive new technologies –
and losing
•End users believe they have many choices for fulfilling their
information needs
•Libraries and their collections need to be visible in the places that
their users inhabit on the Web
•Libraries may no longer be able to rely on large collections of
published materials to distinguish themselves from other services
•Library special collections are likely to gain more weight, prestige
and use, provided they can be surfaced on the Web
•New kinds of information objects may offer opportunities
10/15/2015 27

28. Technological issues
An overarching strategic framework for hybrid library technology does not exist
Interoperability is a key challenge (at the site level and at the network level)
Individual library collections data is generally not disclosed for crawling by search
engines
A better, collaborative, network-level solution is needed to raise the discoverability of
individual collections on high-traffic sites
Good progress in some areas, but adding to complexity of managing technological
environment
10/15/2015 28

29. Institutional
repository
Digital collections
Citation
DBs
Full Text DBs
E-books
A complex, demanding local environment to support
Online catalog –
Integrated
“discovery layer”
for local holdings/
licensed content
(central index)
Library mgt. system
Acquisitions data
Circ/status data
Print holdings data
Licensed content data
Link resolver
Knowledgebases,
registries
E-resource
Management tools/system (ERM)
Off-campus access

30. Library business processes
10/15/2015 30
Figure 5.3 in Exploring Digital Libraries, p. 124. ©2014. Used with permission.

31. A complex, decentralized patchwork
An overarching strategic framework for library collections does not exist
Institutionally- or consortially-based integration (discovery layers)
Mindset - libraries tend to think of themselves as destination sites
In general, libraries are not engaged with the global network infrastructure
Generally poor representation of library collections on the network (outside library systems)
E-resource management, remote access mechanisms
Open access repositories and network-level holdings registries have potential as a way
forward
Some web-scale digital library aggregations beginning to appear (Trove, Europeana, DPLA?)
Continuing legal battle over mass digitization of books?
10/15/2015 31

32. You gotta accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative an' latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In Between
--Song by John Mercer and Arlen Harold

33. Longer term
vision
•Switch users from where they find things to library-managed
collections of all kinds
•Local catalog/collections one link in a chain of services
•More coherent and comprehensive scholarly information
systems, perhaps by discipline
•Infrastructure to permit global discovery and delivery of
information among open, loosely-coupled systems
•Critical mass of digitized publications and special collections
online
•Many starting points on the Web leading to many types of
scholarly information objects
10/15/2015 33

34. “The library is a growing organism”—Ranganathan
10/15/2015 34
Europeana Network. 2014. “Europeana Strategy 2020: ‘We Transform the World with Culture’:
Europeana Strategy 2015-2020.” http://strategy2020.europeana.eu/
See also: DPLA. 2015. “Digital Public Library of America: Strategic Plan, 2015 through 2017.”
http://dp.la/info/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/DPLA-StrategicPlan_2015-2017-Jan7.pdf
From portal to platform …
“People want to re-use and play with the
material, to interact with others and participate
in creating something new.”
Access
“If we can make material available online …
we’ll start to see the benefits for society and
the economy.”