Using a mega-regions ("geographical regions defined on the basis of economic integration and other forms of interdependence") framework to model regional consolidation of shared print book library collections, this report explores a counterfactual scenario where local US and Canadian print book library collections are consolidated into regional shared collections. The analysis in this paper builds upon findings from the OCLC Research report, Cloud-sourcing Research Collections: Managing Print in the Mass-digitized Library Environment (2011), and draws upon bibliographic and library holdings data from the WorldCat database.
Presents a conceptual framework of the nature and scope of the evolving scholarly record to help organize and drive discussions about the evolution of scholarship. The framework presents a high-level view of the categories of materials the scholarly record potentially may encompass, as well as the key stakeholder roles -- and configurations of those roles -- associated with the scholarly record.
Sadistic Shorts - Tales from the Devil's Drawers Don't look out the window and, for goodness sake, don't open the door. Keep it tightly shut and bolted and...no, wait, perhaps you might need to escape in a hurry from something-or someone-already inside. Perhaps it is too late, for here are horrors too gruesome to behold alone on a stormy night, when the lights are flickering and the tree limbs are scratching against the shutters. A collection of stories of lies and deception; of cold-blooded killers; hot-tempered sailors; masochistic victims, and grotesque monsters from the past will bring your worst fears slithering after you as you scramble to get away. Here are sharp knives, last words, deeply-digging shovels, broken glass, wrecked cars, torn bodies, and shattered lives. Here are hellish demons, witches, ghosts, creatures of the night, strangers wreaking destruction, and the ones closest to you that you never saw coming. Here are twisted endings to keep you forever hoping for the dawning light of a new day. It may never come, for here are... Dig Set Spike Block Serve, Ground Rate, and Retention by William G. Sells Jigsaw, and The Summoning by Michael Koogler Liana by T.J. Lord Liar by Dan Otsuki Adding it Up by V.K. Schilling The White Squirrel by Jed Q. Peterson The Audition by Dennis W. Green The Broken People by Drew Wood The Puzzle Piece Person by William Whitehurst The Battle of the Ageless by Brian Wood and Frank LaVoie My Heart Swims in Blood: The Cerro Brujo Diary by L.G. Daleney
Libraries are entering a second phase of their networked life. In the first they thought about how to connect their services to the network. However, now that the network has reconfigured behaviours and structures in significant ways, a new set of issues needs to be addressed. In this second phase, libraries need to create value in an environment where major web presences have changed how people search for information, where the conduct of learning and scholarship is changing, and where scale and network effects are increasingly important. Combining published blog entries and new material this collection explores these issues and considers some library responses.
The circumstances under which libraries carry out their missions shifted dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Library leaders adapted to rapidly changing community and institutional needs by quickly re-creating work environments, reassessing collection priorities, and reimagining community engagement activities. OCLC Research wanted to capture library leaders’ experiences during this global event and understand what they envision for their libraries moving forward. (p. 4)
This report explores regional-scale cooperative print strategies in the context of a local collection (OSU - Ohio State University Libraries) participating in a regionally-scaled, consortial (CIC - Committee on Institutional Cooperation), shared print initiative. The goal is to provide an empirically-based assessment of the potential for a distributed cooperative strategy for print books, based on the principle of a shared, centrally-managed core, and a network of local collections. The report offers a statistical analyses of the OSU print book collection and the CIC collective print book resource and includes statistical information about interlibrary-loan (ILL) traffic patterns.
A compilation of previously-published articles and reports authored by OCLC Research staff and collaborators and published between 2006 and 2013. This collection focuses on the changes in focus, boundaries and value of library collections as the shift from primarily hardcopy (e.g., print) collections to digital resources and networks occurs in libraries.
The scholarly record is increasingly digital and networked, while at the same time expanding in both the volume and diversity of the material it contains. The long-term future of the scholarly record cannot be effectively secured with traditional stewardship models developed for print scholarly materials. This paper discusses the evolving scholarly record in the context of challenges raised for securing its long-term preservation and accessibility. We present a view of the salient features of future stewardship models adapted to the characteristics of a digital, networked scholarly record, and discuss practical implications of implementing these models.
Social Interoperability in Research Support offers a roadmap for acquainting librarians with the other research support stakeholders on campus. It additionally offers a resource for acquainting others on campus with the skills and expertise that the library brings to research support activities." -- page vi.
“We are not worth more, they are not worth less.” This is the mantra of S. Brian Willson and the theme that runs throughout his compelling psycho-historical memoir. Willson’s story begins in small-town, rural America, where he grew up as a “Commie-hating, baseball-loving Baptist,” moves through life-changing experiences in Viet Nam, Nicaragua and elsewhere, and culminates with his commitment to a localized, sustainable lifestyle. In telling his story, Willson provides numerous examples of the types of personal, risk-taking, nonviolent actions he and others have taken in attempts to educate and effect political change: tax refusal—which requires simplification of one’s lifestyle; fasting—done publicly in strategic political and/or therapeutic spiritual contexts; and obstruction tactics—strategically placing one’s body in the way of “business as usual.” It was such actions that thrust Brian Willson into the public eye in the mid-’80s, first as a participant in a high-profile, water-only “Veterans Fast for Life” against the Contra war being waged by his government in Nicaragua. Then, on a fateful day in September 1987, the world watched in horror as Willson was run over by a U.S. government munitions train during a nonviolent blocking action in which he expected to be removed from the tracks and arrested. Losing his legs only strengthened Willson’s identity with millions of unnamed victims of U.S. policy around the world. He provides details of his travels to countries in Latin America and the Middle East and bears witness to the harm done to poor people as well as to the environment by the steamroller of U.S. imperialism. These heart-rending accounts are offered side by side with inspirational stories of nonviolent struggle and the survival of resilient communities Willson’s expanding consciousness also uncovers injustices within his own country, including insights gained through his study and service within the U.S. criminal justice system and personal experiences addressing racial injustices. He discusses coming to terms with his identity as a Viet Nam veteran and the subsequent service he provides to others as director of a veterans outreach center in New England. He draws much inspiration from friends he encounters along the way as he finds himself continually drawn to the path leading to a simpler life that seeks to “do no harm.&rdquo Throughout his personal journey Willson struggles with the question, “Why was it so easy for me, a ’good’ man, to follow orders to travel 9,000 miles from home to participate in killing people who clearly were not a threat to me or any of my fellow citizens?” He eventually comes to the realization that the “American Way of Life” is AWOL from humanity, and that the only way to recover our humanity is by changing our consciousness, one individual at a time, while striving for collective cultural changes toward “less and local.” Thus, Willson offers up his personal story as a metaphorical map for anyone who feels the need to be liberated from the American Way of Life—a guidebook for anyone called by conscience to question continued obedience to vertical power structures while longing to reconnect with the human archetypes of cooperation, equity, mutual respect and empathy.
This report summarizes findings arising from the Preservation Health Check (PHC) project undertaken by OCLC Research in partnership with the Open Planets Foundation to: 1) analyze the quality of preservation metadata created and in use by operational repository and deposit systems, and, 2) evaluate the potential of such metadata for assessing digital preservation risks. The goal of the PHC was to explore a use case (preservation metadata supplied by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France) where preservation metadata could be used to support a particular aspect of digital preservation repository operations. Included in the report is a mapping of PREMIS semantic units to Simple Property-Oriented Threat (SPOT) Model for Risk Assessment properties, and a rendering of a preservation threat assessment logic flow diagram.
Explores findings related to the idea of a RDM (Research Data Management) service bundle in the context of four case study partners -- University of Edinburgh (U,K.), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U.S.A.), Monash University (Australia), Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands) -- examining how each university scoped their local RDM service bundle in light of each institution's broader institutional and external environments. In each case, the choices made--and the resulting RDM service bundle reflect the particular circumstances of the university in question. While each university is unique, other institutions may see something of themselves in one or more of the universities examined, and the case studies may serve as models or patterns to inform local RDM planning in other contexts.
Ireland’s global cultural profile, and the widespread interest in “Irishness,” can be partially understood through the island’s manifestation in the published record. Using WorldCat, this publication offers reflections on the Irish presence in the published record, including its size and salient characteristics, evolving trends, and patterns of global diffusion. While our exploration of the Irish presence is not exhaustive, it does sketch out the contours of this important piece of the overall published record, and hopefully inspires ideas for new modes of inquiry into Ireland’s distinctive cultural influence around the world. Not incidentally, this study also highlights the indispensable role of libraries as repositories and caretakers of the creative outputs of Ireland and all nations.
Provides brief background on the emergence of RDM (Research Data Management) as a focus for research support services within higher education; presents the Education-Expertise-Curation (E-E-C) framework for navigating the contours of the RDM service space; describes the methodology the authors employed for assembling their findings and discusses the key elements of RDM capacity acquisition these findings address; and offers a preview of the next report in the series.
In this report—the fourth and final of OCLC Research’s The Realities of Research Data Management report series—we examine institutional choices for sourcing the provision, and scaling the deployment, of research data management (RDM) services. By sourcing, we mean where RDM services are developed and managed: i.e., locally or by an external provider. By scaling, we mean at what scale will the services be deployed: i.e., at the level of the institution or at scales above or below the institution. In this report, we describe the sourcing and scaling choices made by our case study partners as they acquired RDM capacity and built their RDM service bundles. (RDM services at the University of Edinburgh (U,K.), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U.S.A.), Monash University (Australia), Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands) are referenced as examples.)
Profiles of RDM (Research Data Management) services at the University of Edinburgh (U,K.), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U.S.A.), Monash University (Australia), Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands).
Incentives or motivations to acquire RDM (Research Data Management) capacity are multi-faceted and flow from different sources. Based on our case studies of University of Edinburgh (U,K.), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (U.S.A.), Monash University (Australia), Wageningen University & Research (Netherlands), as well as the broader RDM landscape, we organized these incentives into four broad categories: Compliance, Evolving scholarly norms, Institutional strategy, and Researcher demand.
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