Maine Shared Collections Strategy Advisory Board Conference Call
March 5, 2012
1-2 (Eastern)
Attending: Valerie Glenn, Clem Guthro, James Jackson Sanborn, Bob Kieft, Constance Malpas, Lizanne Payne, Deb Rollins
- Update on in-person meeting
The Advisory Board is scheduled to visit the University of Maine in Orono on May 21st. In addition to a meeting with the project team and lunch with the Directors Council, they would like to meet with Collection Representatives. The three also agreed to present on the following topics: Lizanne, overview of shared print activities; Constance, overlap between HathiTrust and Oberlin Group libraries, public libraries; Bob, trends in collaborative collection development. The presentation will be open to all; they will each speak for around 20 minutes and will have time for questions.
Valerie will send information about travel to Orono and local hotels.
2. Collection Analysis criteria/formula activities
The group was updated on collection analysis and related activities; the reclamation project is on the downward slope, but updated holdings will not be included in WCA until May. It is challenging to know where to start and what to work on without usage data. It was suggested that the group look at unique items (unique to the group; unique to WorldCat); Bob mentioned that he was working with Rick Lugg to look at deselection data.
Question: how can the “number of copies” issue be done on a more global level?
Bob suggested that someone survey consortia to see what they have determined is their minimum number of copies. [consortia mentioned: Claremont Colleges Link+ system, CARLI (IL); Orbis Cascade; OhioLink.] It was mentioned that Ithaka S+R had done research on this for journals; as far as we know they have not/are not working on this for monographs.
It was also mentioned that there was a webinar in September of 2010 where Jacob Nadal and others discussed a formula for decision-making for preservation treatments. This may be helpful for the collection representatives when discussing a formula for making retention decisions. (The webinar is available at http://www.oclc.org/research/events/webinars.htm#mc)
Bob also mentioned that there will be a Modern Language Association program in January 2013 (in Boston) on how many copies is enough. The session will involve librarians and scholars. More details will follow.
3. Documenting retention commitments for monographs
Question: can LHRs be attached to monograph records in WorldCat Local? (They cannot be in III. Instead if we want to indicate a retention decision at the local copy level, a 583 note could be added to the bib record or a non-Marc note could be added to an item record.) Answer: yes.
[Notes from Valerie: we will need to decide what level of detail to record for monographs; we also need to decide the length of the retention term.]
One agenda item for the May meeting: how does one operationalize these activities?
Bob noted that he is available for other project calls if we have questions; this is not limited to Advisory Board activities.