Aggregating Responsibility for Research Collections John A MacColl University of St Andrews Research Support: New Roles, New Relationships Scottish Academic Libraries Cooperative Training Group
May 25, 2015
Aggregating Responsibility for Research Collections
John A MacCollUniversity of St Andrews
Research Support: New Roles, New RelationshipsScottish Academic Libraries Cooperative Training Group
University of Glasgow Library, 18 June 2013
Have we changed?Our pre-Web mindset
• The Collection• The Catalogue• Cat & Class• Books & journals
The Atkinson View – mid-90s
• The essential selectivity of collections
• A library-controlled zone
• Preserve the authority of the paper library
The Atkinson View – mid-00s
• The challenge of archiving• Need for research libraries to
coordinate print archiving• Need for research libraries to
coordinate digital preservation
The centre cannot hold
• Different approaches to UKRR• What should we be storing?• What should we be preserving?• What is a good repository?
Loss (Authority AND Control)
• ‘Every reader their book-like object’
• Fifty Shades of Grey (literature)
(Yes) we have changed• Journal prices have gone out of
control• Content has rushed in• Student experience has been
revaluated
• Institutions have become more competitive
• Access has become king• Libraries have become divorced
from stewardship• But stewardship has remained
necessary
Collaborative Stewardship
UKRR – US regional print stores – Hathi – Portico – CLOCKSS – JSTOR – EuropePMC – UK OpenMirror …
OCLC/COPAC/TEL …
Passive redundancy (benign neglect)
Active redundancy (the new challenge)
‘In the centre, me’
Governance (who’s got the power?)
The institutionallibrary
Institutional libraries acting collectively can be powerful in directing or creating new
agencies, eg OCLC, JISC Collections, SCONUL Performance Indicators,
Hathi Trust, UKRR, the ILL network, Portico, KB+, new
Jisc
What does it mean for us?• Ask not ‘What can these agencies do for us?’But rather• ‘What do we want?’• ‘How much do we have to spend?’• Organise our buying power!• Cut through the agency competition and poor agenda
coordination• Consider the implications of JISC-Jisc reformation• We have 40 years of best practice
Sneak Preview: a new research library cooperative agenda?
• Shared print• National
Monograph Strategy
• Jisc Collections• COPAC Collections
Management• KB+• A UK Open Mirror
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Thank You!