News From OCLC
Compiled by Jay Weitz
For the Music OCLC Users Group/Music Library Association Conference
Cincinnati, Ohio
2016 March 1-5
Cataloging and Metadata
Cataloging Defensively Series
Two presentations in the “Cataloging Defensively” series are now available on the OCLC Web site’s “About RDA” page (http://www.oclc.org/rda/about.en.html). The first is the general 2010 “Cataloging Defensively: ‘When to Input a New Record’ in the Age of DDR” slides and recorded Webinar. The second is the PowerPoint “Cataloging Maps Defensively,” which was presented to the Map and Geospatial Information Round Table (MAGIRT) Cataloging and Classification Committee (CCC) at ALA Midwinter in Boston in January 2016. This session will be repeated at the MAGIRT Cartographic Resources Cataloging Interest Group at ALA Annual in Orlando in June 2016. “Cataloging Videorecordings Defensively” is scheduled to be presented at the Online Audiovisual Catalogers (OLAC) membership meeting also at ALA Annual in June. “Cataloging Sound Recordings Defensively” will be presented at the Music OCLC Users Group (MOUG) meeting in Cincinnati in March 2016. It is expected that a series of “Cataloging Defensively” presentations for various specific types of bibliographic materials will be created in coming months. The “Cataloging Defensively” presentations are not cataloging workshops, per se, but are designed to give some background to how OCLC’s Duplicate Detection and Resolution (DDR) software deals with bibliographic records, both generally and for the specific bibliographic format in the title. They should help catalogers use MARC 21 and the instructions in both RDA and AACR2 to the best advantage in making sure that DDR performs appropriately when encountering a record that is legitimately unique according to the descriptive conventions.
Discovery and Reference
WorldCat Discovery Simplifies Access to Resources and Ownership Information
January 2016 WorldCat Discovery changes will help users more easily get the resources they identify in search results. Records now display library ownership and availability information together, so searchers can more quickly determine how to obtain needed items. Links to materials available electronically appear first, so users can conveniently connect directly with available online resources. For items not available online, users can view a list of libraries that own an item, with the closest libraries appearing first. Emailed lists of records now contain the following information (newly added data indicated in bold):
- Title (now hotlinked)
- Author
- Format, Date, Peer Reviewed
- Source (Journal name and information)
- Publication information
- ISBN
- ISSN
- OCLC Number
- Database Name
- Call Number and Shelving Location (for libraries with the Availability option only)
Additional details about January 2016 WorldCat Discovery enhancements is provided in WorldCat Discovery Release Notes January 2016 at http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/support/release-notes/discovery/discovery_release_2016-01-21.pdf. New content now available in WorldCat Discovery, WorldCat Local, and WorldCat.org includes:
- International Law & World Order: Weston’s & Carlson’s Basic Documents from Brill
- LUP Publications from Liverpool University Press
- Theological Research Exchange Network E-Documents from Theological Research Exchange Network
- JSTOR Arts & Sciences XIV Collection from JSTOR
- Schattauer Publishers from Schattauer
New content now available in WorldCat Discovery and WorldCat Local includes:
- Popular Medicine in America, 1800-1900 from Adam Matthew Digital
A complete list of databases in the central index can be downloaded from http://oc.lc/indexDiscovery (Excel, 962 KB).
OCLC Signs Agreements with Leading Publishers Worldwide
OCLC has signed agreements with leading publishers to add metadata for books, e-books, journals, databases, and other materials that will make their content discoverable through WorldCat Discovery Services. OCLC has agreements in place with more than 200 publishers and information providers to supply metadata to facilitate discovery and access to key resources. OCLC recently signed agreements with the following content providers:
- Adfo Group, based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, is a market leader in the field of marketing and communications publications. Its program includes magazines like Adformatie and Tijdschrift voor Marketing, newsletters, and training programs.
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), based in New York City, USA, is a not-for-profit membership organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing, career enrichment, and skills development across all engineering disciplines. ASME seeks to deliver locally relevant engineering resources to advance public safety and quality of life throughout the world.
- Artstor, based in New York City, USA, provides the Artstor Digital Library of more than 2 million high-quality images for teaching and research, and Shared Shelf multimedia collection management software for institutions to manage, catalog, and share their digital media locally or on the Web.
- Blackstone Audiobooks, based in Ashland, Oregon, USA, is one of the nation’s largest independent audiobook publishers, offering over 10,000 unabridged audiobook titles, plus more than 150 new releases each month, including titles from Blackstone, Hachette, HarperCollins, Harlequin Audio, christianaudio, and Penguin Random House.
- Henry Stewart Publications, LLP, based in London, UK, is a leading publisher of peer-reviewed, vocational journals that support employability and career development.
- Klett-Cotta, based in Stuttgart, Germany, publishes journals and books from a broad range of subject areas such as literature, fantasy, general non-fiction, history, politics, philosophy, psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, psychology, and education.
- ODILO, based in Madrid, Spain, is a leading solution in Europe and Latin America, offering a comprehensive product suite for the discovery, management, and distribution of library print and digital materials.
- Schattauer, based in Stuttgart, Germany, publishes in Medicine and Natural Science. The main pillars of the publishing house are its renowned textbook program with over 1,200 available books, ebooks, and digital data, and 21 national and international scientific journals.
- Ulverscroft, based in Leicester, UK, specializes in publishing unabridged large print books and unabridged audiobooks, and supplies these shelf ready copies to public libraries. Ulverscroft also distributes ebooks to public libraries.
- Wolters Kluwer, based in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, is a global leader in professional information services. Professionals in the areas of legal, business, tax, accounting, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and healthcare rely on Wolters Kluwer’s market leading information-enabled tools and software solutions to manage their business efficiently, deliver results to their clients, and succeed in an ever more dynamic world.
- Wolters Kluwer Health, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, is a leading global provider of information for the healthcare industry and publications in Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health.
Metadata from some of these publishers will also be made available to users through other OCLC services based on individual agreements. Details about how this metadata may be used in library management workflows will be communicated to OCLC users as the data is available. By providing metadata and other descriptive content for more than 1.9 billion resources, these partnerships help libraries represent their electronic and physical collections more completely and efficiently.
Management Services and Systems
OCLC Sustainable Collection Services Extends GreenGlass to Support Groups
OCLC Sustainable Collection Services (SCS) now supports shared print monograph projects through its GreenGlass application. GreenGlass group features extend collection visualization and interactivity to consortial or regional collections, enabling participating libraries to better understand and manage their shared collection. GreenGlass, an interactive decision-support application, has been used by individual libraries to identify retention, transfer, and withdrawal candidates for individual libraries based on usage and holdings in other libraries. Guided by input from librarians, SCS has extended GreenGlass capabilities to support group data sets, and to introduce new group-level tools. New GreenGlass group functionality includes real-time modeling of retention scenarios based on multiple factors, and a suite of group-level collection visualizations. These are designed to inform and facilitate decision-making among shared print partners. As library collections move from print to digital, and spaces once used to house books are now dedicated to users, librarians need data and tools to help curate onsite collections, and to collaborate on retention and storage. GreenGlass group features offer a tool built expressly for that purpose. SCS services use WorldCat to inform which titles should be kept locally, which can be discarded, and which can be considered to be kept in shared collections. SCS is the leader in analyzing print collection data to help libraries manage and share their materials. OCLC acquired SCS in January 2015.
Erasmus University Rotterdam Selects OCLC WorldShare Management Services
Erasmus University Rotterdam, one of the largest universities in the Netherlands with over 24,000 students and a research community of approximately 1,400 scientists, has selected OCLC WorldShare Management Services as its library management system. WorldShare Management Services (WMS) (http://www.oclc.org/content/mainoclc/unitedstates/en_us/worldshare-management-services.en.html) is a complete, cloud-based library management system that offers all the applications needed to manage a library, including Acquisitions, Circulation, Metadata, Resource Sharing, License Management, and a single-search Discovery interface to connect library users to the information they need. WMS also includes a range of Reports based on local data that help libraries understand their activities and track key metrics over time. The EUR is a member of the UKB-consortium, which comprises 13 Dutch university libraries and the National Library of the Netherlands. In 2014, the UKB has signed an agreement with OCLC to move library services to the WorldShare platform. Today, more than 380 libraries worldwide are using WMS to share bibliographic records, publisher, and knowledge base data, vendor records, serials patterns, and more. With WorldCat at its foundation, WMS enables libraries to draw on the collaborative data and work of libraries worldwide for more efficient workflows. WMS also provides libraries with the unique opportunity to share innovation, applications, infrastructure, vision, and success in serving their users.
College of Europe Selects OCLC WorldShare Management Services
The College of Europe (Bruges campus), an independent university of postgraduate European studies, has selected OCLC WorldShare Management Services as its library management system. The College of Europe is the first Belgian institution to join the WorldShare Management Services community.
Digital Collections Services
Washington State Library Illuminates Rural Digital Collections with Visual Mapping
With OCLC’s CONTENTdm, libraries can increase the visibility of digital collections and make them more discoverable. CONTENTdm enables the storage, editing, and display of digital collections, making them accessible online for searchers worldwide. In 2015, the Washington State Library added a visual mapping tool to several of its digital collections, which are powered by CONTENTdm. The Washington Rural Heritage Collection and the Colville National Forest Heritage Collection use StoryMap JS, a free, open source tool for geo mapping created by Northwestern University’s Knight Lab. The Washington State Library has embedded this tool in its CONTENTdm websites, allowing users to browse maps and explore collections geographically. Users can click on map locations of Washington state, and can view links and short blurbs about digital collections from specific areas. Digital items such as images and videos are available from these collections. This visual mapping makes it easier for users to find what they are looking for in the digital collections sites, and it provides for novel uses of the state library’s data. The state library’s institutional partners, such as the United States Forest Service, are helped by the sites, which draws attention to lesser known communities and collections in Washington. In the near future, the state library’s items will also appear in the Digital Public Library of America’s (DPLA) map. The visual mapping functionality is made possible by adding geo-referenced information (latitude and longitude coordinates) to the digital collections. The state library works with library staffers at institutions throughout the state to add these coordinates; interns and volunteers also contribute to the effort. The Washington State Library also uses the CONTENTdm API and Timeline JS, also from Knight Lab, to tell the story of a pioneer family. This collection, the Mount Baker Foothills Collection, features a timeline that calls up images directly from the library’s digital collections using the CONTENTdm API.
Resource Sharing
WorldShare Interlibrary Loan Fee Management Changes
On 2015 December 1 at 12:01 am US Eastern time, IFM payments began to be triggered when the lender marks the request as Shipped. The ability to grant IFM refunds is targeted for an early 2016 release. In the History tab for each request, you can review IFM details and track success or failure of IFM payments.
WorldShare Interlibrary Loan Users:
- For WorldShare Interlibrary Loan requests placed 1 November through 30 November that are in Shipped status, but not yet marked Received, OCLC will retroactively trigger the payment on those requests on 1 December. No action from the library is required.
- For WorldShare Interlibrary Loan, requests placed between 1 January and 30 November with “problem” statuses (e.g. Received? Not Received), no payments will be triggered.
ILLiad Users:
- For ILLiad requests placed 1 November through 30 November that are in Shipped status, but not yet marked Received, OCLC will retroactively trigger the payment on those requests. No action from the library is required.
- For ILLiad requests placed between 1 January and 30 November with “problem” statuses (e.g. Received? Not Received), no payments will be triggered.
- Note that ILLiad libraries should be diligent when marking items as Shipped to ensure IFM charges are rendered appropriately. ILLiad libraries that change a request status from Shipped to Undo Shipped within the same day of setting Shipped will automatically receive a refund for that change. This action does not require the refund service or a dummy request.
If you have any questions about the new IFM trigger, please reach out to OCLC Support at support@oclc.org.
Member Relations, Advocacy, Governance, and Training
31 New Webinars Added to the WebJunction Catalog
The WebJunction Course Catalog (http://learn.webjunction.org/) provides free access to library-focused self-paced courses and webinar archives. Through the generous support of OCLC, the Gates Foundation, and many state library agencies across the U.S., WebJunction continues to provide timely and relevant learning content for you to access anytime, from anywhere. Covering the topics of outreach, programming, technology, social media, and so much more, 182 webinar archives are currently available, produced by WebJunction or by one of our content collaborators: TechSoup, Infopeople, NCompass Live, and ALCTS. And with each course or webinar you complete from the catalog, you will earn a certificate of completion. Visit http://learn.webjunction.org/ to browse all courses and webinar archives.
OCLC Research
Data Modeling and Reuse Project Receives NEH Grant
OCLC Research joins colleagues from Stanford University, the University of Michigan, and the Institute for Field Research (IFR) in assisting the Alexandria Archive Institute (AAI) on a three-year data modeling and reuse project that has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). This longitudinal study of archaeological data creation, management, and reuse practices in three geographical areas (North Africa, Europe, and South America) will investigate data quality and modeling requirements for reuse by a larger research community. The project, which launched 2016 January 1, will improve the quality of information collected during archaeological excavations across the globe, preserve this information, and share it with the public. Outcomes include exemplary open datasets, an expansion of Open Context’s data publishing services, and online educational modules. By funding this project, the NEH is showing a strong commitment to making quality humanistic research more accessible to the public. The Alexandria Archive Institute is a non-profit entity that supports research and development to enhance scholarly communications and instruction through innovative use of the Web through Web-based publication with a focus on primary data—information that rarely sees dissemination. OCLC Research is collaborating with project partners to share outcomes that consider the entire data lifecycle when developing approaches to align data creation and field management practices with preservation, dissemination, and reuse requirements. As a co-investigator on the project, Research Scientist Ixchel Faniel, Ph.D. is working with the team to interview and observe archaeologists doing field work in the three geographical areas and archaeologists interested in reusing data from those areas. See the AAI news release at http://alexandriaarchive.org/2015/12/14/aai-receives-neh-grant-to-bridge-data-creation-and-reuse/ for more information about this project.
OCLC Research and ALISE Announce 2016 Research Grants
OCLC Research and the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) have awarded research grants for five projects to be conducted by 10 researchers. The awards were presented 2016 January 7 at the ALISE 2016 Annual Conference Awards Luncheon in Boston, Massachusetts.
- Iris Xie and Rakesh Babu, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, will investigate universal accessibility of digital libraries with specific work on design of Help mechanisms for blind users. This project provides not only a theoretical contribution by helping to understand the blind users’ help-seeking behaviors, but also a practical contribution by offering an iterative design of accessible and usable Help features for blind users.
- Abdulhussain Mahdi and Arash Joorabchi, University of Limerick, will pursue the development of an algorithm for automatic mapping of FAST subject headings to their equivalent Wikipedia articles or topic. The proposed mapping algorithm deploys various text mining techniques such as string matching, explicit semantic analysis, and citation analysis to find the best matching article for a given FAST term.
- Besiki Stvilia, Florida State University, Dong Joon Lee, Texas A&M University, and Shuheng Wu, Queens College, CUNY, will investigate the social aspects of participation in online research identity management systems. The study’s findings can inform the design of research identity data/metadata models, data quality assurance activities, mechanisms for recruiting and retaining researchers for provision and maintenance of identity data. The study can also inform teaching of data curation and research data repository management in Library and Information Science schools.
- Pengyi Zhang, Peking University, will investigate collaborative sensemaking in online knowledge groups. This research aims to answer the question, “How do people with collaborative tasks construct knowledge structures and fit data into the structures collectively in online knowledge groups?” The proposed research will advance theoretical understanding of collaborative sensemaking and provide guidance for empirical research and education of sensemaking skills.
- Denice Adkins and Heather Moulaison Sandy, University of Missouri, will identify ways in which multiple Latino populations use mobile technologies for information-seeking; use social media for information-seeking; and based on that knowledge, create “profiles” for various Latino communities (i.e. rural, urban, established communities, newcomer communities, etc.) that can be used by libraries to tailor their social media and mobile information campaigns.
OCLC/ALISE Library and Information Science Research Grants support research that advances librarianship and information science, promotes independent research to help librarians integrate new technologies into areas of traditional competence, and contributes to a better understanding of the library environment. Full-time academic faculty (or the equivalent) in schools of library and information science worldwide are eligible to apply for grants of up to $15,000. Proposals are evaluated by a panel selected by OCLC and ALISE. Supported projects are expected to be conducted within approximately one year from the date of the award and, as a condition of the grant, researchers must furnish a final project report at the end of the grant period. More information about the OCLC/ALISE Library and Information Science Research Grant Program and a list of previous grant recipients are available on the OCLC website at http://www.oclc.org/research/grants.html.
If You Build It, Will They Fund? Making Research Data Management Sustainable
Some research libraries have been proactive in taking on the new role of supporting the research data management needs of researchers and the university, whereas others have been assigned this role without having sought it. Either way, additional financial or personnel resources rarely are in place to implement and sustain this activity. The brief document, If You Build It, Will They Fund? Making Research Data Management Sustainable by Ricky Erway and Amanda Rinehart (http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/research/publications/2016/oclcresearch-making-research-data-management-sustainable-2016.pdf), explores the pros and cons of seven possible funding sources. It also describes the current circumstances in seven countries outside the United States. Among the highlights:
- Because some research data is a valuable university asset, institutions should build ongoing funding into their base budgets to provide resources to the units responsible for managing that asset.
- The seven funding strategies include obtaining institutional budgetary support, adding to grant budgets, charging data depositors, charging data users, establishing an endowment, using existing funding for data repository development, and making do with existing budgets.
- Another option is to outsource to external data repositories, although many make no effort to meet digital preservation standards.
Data management underpins current and future research, funder mandates, open access initiatives, researcher reputations, and institutional rankings. While it is widely recognized that data management support is necessary, recognition that it requires sustainable funding is slower in coming. Even as the community is beginning to understand the costs, it must begin to address how data management might be funded. This brief report provides an overview of seven funding strategies and their standing in the US. Circumstances in seven other countries are described in the appendix. This work is part of our research collections and support efforts to inform current thinking about research collections and the emerging services that libraries are offering to support contemporary modes of scholarship. We are encouraging the development of new ways for libraries to build and provide these types of collections and deliver distinctive services. For more information about this specific effort, see our role of libraries in data curation project at http://www.oclc.org/research/themes/research-collections/datacuration.html.
OCLC Research Library Partnership Welcomes Three Recent Additions
- OCLC Research is delighted to announce three additions to the OCLC Research Library Partnership:
- Stellenbosch University, a leading public research university, is our first Partner in South Africa. The Partner Representative is Ellen R. Tise, Senior Director, Library and Information Service.
- Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC) is the largest private university in Europe and the largest Catholic university in the world. It extends our partnership to southern Europe. The Partner Representative is Dr. Ellis Sada, Head of Central Library, Milan Campus.
- The University of Sheffield, a member of the Russell Group of 24 leading research universities in the United Kingdom, ranked number one in the UK for student satisfaction in the 2014-2015 Times Student Experience Survey. The Partner Representative is Tracey Clarke, Associate Director for Academic & Digital Strategies.
We look forward to collaborating with these three institutions’ library staff on projects that benefit all research libraries and their users. The OCLC Research Library Partnership currently comprises 170 Partner institutions around the world (http://www.oclc.org/research/partnership/roster.html).