reconfiguring research collections - hku

The world’s libraries. Connected.

Reconfiguring Research Collections

Academic Libraries in the 21st Century

University of Hong Kong | 6 September 2012

Constance Malpas

Program OfficerOCLC Research

@ConstanceM

Low Stewardship

High Stewardship

In few collections

In many collections

Collections Grid

Licensed

Purchased

Purchased materialsLicensed E-Resources

Research & Learning Materials

Open Web Resources

Special CollectionsLocal Digitization

Low Stewardship

High Stewardship

In few collections

In many collections

Licensed

Purchased

Limited

High attention

Less attention

Limited Aspirational

Occasional

Intentional

Library attention and investment are shifting

Low Stewardship

High Stewardship

In Few Collections

In Many Collections

Academic institutions are driving this change

Licensed

Purchased

Redirection of library

resource

today

+5 yrs

Aggregate university library spending on e-resources : JULAC > $184M HK in 2007

US ARL = $627M US in 2008, or 41% total lib. exp.


Change in academic collections

• Shift to licensed electronic content is acceleratingResearch journals – a well established trendScholarly monographs – in progress

• Print collections delivering less (and less) value at great (and growing) cost

Est. $4.25 US per volume per year for on-site collectionsLibrary purchasing power decreasing as per-unit cost rises

• Special collections marginal to educational mandate at many institutions

Costly to manage, not always integral to teaching, learning


• Erosion of traditional library value proposition in academic sector

Institutional reputation no longer determined (or substantially influenced) by scope, scale of local print collection

• Changing nature of scholarly record

Research, teaching and learning embedded in larger social and technological networks; new set of stewardship challenges for libraries

• Format transition; mass digitization of legacy print

Web-scale discoverability has fundamentally changed research practices; local collections no longer the center of attention

Key factors are driving this change


A long term, system-wide trend

19771982

19851988

19921995

19971998

20002002

20042006

2008$0

$50,000,000

$100,000,000

$150,000,000

$200,000,000

$250,000,000

$300,000,000

$350,000,000

$400,000,000

0.00%

0.50%

1.00%

1.50%

2.00%

2.50%

3.00%

US Academic Library Expenditures vs. Total Spending on Post-Secondary Education

Aggregate US Spending on Post-Secondary Education US Library Operating Exp. as % of Ed. Spending

$6.8 billion in 2008

OCLC Research. Derived from data reported in NCES Digest of Education Statistics: 2008.


0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

No

. of

Ins

titu

tio

ns

Shift in provision of higher education

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

For Profit

Public

Private Not-for-Profit

Distribution of Post-Secondary Educational Institutions in the United States by Source of Funding

OCLC Research. Derived from data reported in NCES Digest of Education Statistics: 2008.


Among US research libraries, a tipping point …

$- $5,000,000 $10,000,000 $15,000,000 $20,000,000 $25,000,000 $30,000,000 $35,000,000 $40,000,000 0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Library Materials Expenditures (2007-2008)

Lic

ensed C

onte

nt

as %

of

Lib

rary

Mate

rials

$

Derived from ARL Annual Statistics, 2007-2008

Majority of research libraries shifting toward e-centric acquisitions, service model

Shrinking pool of libraries with mission and resources to sustain print preservation as ‘core’ operation

HarvardYale

Center of gravity


10

E-resource spending among JULAC libraries (2005-2007)

Source: derived from CAVAL’s Asian Library Statistics

?


Source: derived from CAVAL’s Asian Library Statistics

Buying more – or just paying more?


The library ‘service bundle’

“An academic library is a bundle of information-related resources and services that a university has chosen to provide internally, rather than transact for them with external parties …Transaction costs help explain why academic libraries look the way they do today… As the pattern of transaction costs change, so too will the boundaries of the library”

Brian Lavoie & Lorcan Dempsey “Rethinking the Boundaries of the Academic Library” OCLC Next Space 17 (January 2011): 16-17.


Core library operations are moving “outside” institutional boundaries

- cooperative cataloging

- ILL, resource sharing

- approval plans

- licensed content

- digital preservation . . . print management

As transaction costs fall, so do boundaries

creating room for more distinctive library services


http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/21stctfreport_11may12.pdf

21st Century Collections

http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/21stctfreport_11may12.pdf


Low Stewardship

High Stewardship

In few collections

In many collections

Licensed

Purchased

Limited

Reducing Transaction Costs: Shared Infrastructure

Consortial licensing

Shared knowledge bases

Shared storage

Approval plans

Shared repository infrastructure

Shared preservation infrastructure

Shared stewardship

Demand-driven acquisition


HKU: Institutional Identity, Reputation Management


Library Role in Reputation Management

AKA “authority control”

http://www.hku.hk/about/uid/introduction.html

http://hub.hku.hk/local/top1pc/top1pc.jsp

Managing university identity

http://www.hku.hk/about/uid/introduction.html

http://hub.hku.hk/local/top1pc/top1pc.jsp


2008-2011: RFIDLow

StewardshipHigh

Stewardship

In few collections

In many collections

Licensed

Purchased

Limited

Reconfiguring Research Collections at HKUL

2013?: JURA

HKU Scholars HubHong Kong Oral Histories

2000:First HK ebook collection

2005: Hong Kong Monograph Acquisitions Consortium

“externalizing” these:

“internalizing” these

2008-2011 RFID

HKU ExamBase

HKU Press Digital Editions

Early Western Books on Asia


Key Findings

Significant and growing overlap between academic print collections and mass-digitized corpus

As much as 75% of the mass-digitized resource already managed in shared print repositories

Opportunity for large-scale transformation in academic print management; space recovery and cost-avoidance

2011


HathiTrust Digital Library Growth Trajectory

Source: C. Malpas, OCLC Research 2012.

As of July 2012, HathiTrust is equal in size (volumes) and scope (titles) to top US ARL libraries

>20% public domain


Source: C. Malpas. OCLC Research, 2011.


• Partner institutions have reasonable expectation of tangible benefit of affiliation

• Opportunity to re-purpose existing data resources, drive research toward operational implementation

• Partner engagement - collective action dependent on shared priorities, institutional demographics

ORLP Collection Profiles: Why?

The world’s libraries. Connected. OCLC Research, 2012


+8%

+13%(Net: 19%)(Net: 18%)

OCLC Research, 2012


413K as of July 2012

OCLC Research, 2012


What Counts? Titles vs. Volumes

As of July 2012:

• 12,546 titles in HKUL duplicated in HathiTrust with at least some public domain content

• Amounts to 126,448 digitised volumes, of which 44,506 are designated as public domain outside of United States

• @ $4.26 USD* or $33 HKD per volume / per year, represents between $1.5M and $3.3MHKD cost avoidance if moved from open stacks to high-density storage

*based on US life-cycle book storage costs (Courant, 2010)


Library attention still focused on books

OCLC Research, 2012


Humanities & Social Sciences predominate sizeable opportunity -- or big risk?

OCLC Research, 2012


Move to storage? Withdraw in favor of shared JURA collection?


Highly unusual distribution, likely a result of HKU’s productivity in original cataloging


Median Overlap = 24%

Among Asian research libraries, ~25% holdings overlap with HathiTrust



Among (selected) JULAC libraries ~19% holdings overlap with HathiTrust

Median Overlap = 19%



How are profiles being used?

• For HathiTrust partners, implications for how to derive maximum benefit from affiliation

• For others, an opportunity to reconsider collective digitization priorities; rights distribution and rights-determination efforts; re-imagine subject bibliography

• For all, occasion to reflect on collection management strategies, future of print fulfillment and library supply chain


Key Findings

2012

90% of the print book collection in North America is concentrated in 12 mega-regions

Access benefits and preservation risk are highly concentrated

Regional collections are highly diffuse Risk assessment requires system-wide view

>50% of regional print books managed by academic libraries

Changes in global higher education affect entire library system

Despite high-levels of bi-lateral duplication, each mega region has something unique to offer

improving ‘flows’ will benefit all players


• Applying novel conceptual frameworks from Economics, etc., Management literature to library environment is a core activity in OCLC Research agenda

• Growth in shared print management initiatives at variable (and overlapping) scale: state-wide, consortium-wide, regional, national etc. are ‘natural experiments’ in optimizing redistribution of print stewardship

• Cooperative management of monographic collections may require a new organizational frame of reference; leveraging regional investment in logistics, HE infrastructure

Mega-regions: Why?


Mega-regions of North America

Orbis-Cascade Alliance

Center for Institutional Cooperation

Association of Southeastern

Research Library

Ontario Council of University Librarians

Western Regional Storage Trust


Monographic Publications and Library Holdings in North American Mega-regions

45M discrete publications – 60% of print books in WorldCat; 70% of holdings889M library holdings (avg. 20/title)“Spiky” distribution


Bi-lateral Duplication with Aggregate BOS-WASH Collection, by Mega-Region

BOS-WASH alone duplicates 70% to 93% of other regional collections


BOSWASHCHIPITTSTORBUFFCHESTERNORCALCHARLANTA

86% coverage

Concentration of resource, concentration of risk

Malpas, OCLC Research 2012.


Asian mega-regions, 2010

“… mega regions will be the drivers of Asian economies in 2050.”

Asia Development Bank, 2011

Sources: R. Florida. Cities & the Creative Class in Asia. AtlanticCities.com Asia 2050: Realizing the Asian Century

Asia Pacific in the vanguard of shift … APEC accounts for 9% of world population

>50% of global economic output

~75% of global innovationRichard Florida, 2011

Population ~45M


Global Influence

Source: A.T. Kearney. 2012 Global Cities Index


Asian cities poised to gain global influence

Source: AT Kearney. 2012 Global Cities Index


“Where the World’s Brains Are” (2010)

Research universities increasingly function as a key hub institution of the knowledge economy.

Richard Florida

Source: R. Florida. Where the World’s Brains Are. www.creativeclass.com


“Where the World’s Brains Are” 2010 vs. 2012

Sources: www.creativeclass.com THES Top Asian Universities 2012

2010/11: Asian universities account for 7% of top 400 world universities

2011/2012: … 16% of top 400

http://www.creativeclass.com/


• A (mega) regional strategy for library print management could reduce redundant investment in ‘low-value’ operations

• Enabling academic libraries to refocus attention, resources on distinctive service contributions

• Leveraging existing networks of cooperation and exchange

• Raising the global profile of Asian library capacity

Implications


Questions?

Comments?

Thanks for your attention.