Maine Shared Collections’ Analysis Services

Background

Although the founding members of MSCC made a large volume of retention commitments (see About for more information), there are rare and interesting titles held by other Maine libraries that should be protected, which is why we want to work with Maine libraries on analyzing their print monograph collections to identify titles they might consider committing to retain and also those titles they can safely weed because they are being committed to retain by other libraries.

41 libraries have gone through the collection analysis process, ranging from small public libraries to University of Maine system libraries. Maine Shared Collections have contracted with Sara Amato, a systems librarian, to extract bibliographic and item data from local library information systems and compare that data with holdings in OCLC WorldCat and MaineCat. Sara compiles this data into spreadsheets to be used in the collection analysis (see example of spreadsheet for Edythe L. Dyer Community Library Under10 OCLC).

The results of the analysis carried out thus far can be found in this MSCC Data Comparisons spreadsheet.

Collection Analysis Services

We provide you with spreadsheets that show:

  • Titles you hold which have received a Maine Shared Collections retention commitment at another library.
  • A subset of committed to retain titles you hold that have Maine Shared Collection retention commitments and have had fewer than two circulations at your library since being added to the collection.
  • Titles you own with zero Maine library holdings in OCLC WorldCat. We also show MaineCat holding levels for these titles.
  • Titles you own with 10 or fewer holdings in OCLC WorldCat. We also show MaineCat holding levels for these titles.
  • Metadata errors e.g. incorrect and missing ISBN, OCLC numbers that can be used to clean records.
  • All your item level records with circulation and OCLC WorldCat holdings data.
  • Data permitting, we can adapt these spreadsheets to meet local needs.

The Maine Shared Collection Librarian, Matthew Revitt will meet with library staff to review the spreadsheets and offer suggestions for areas of focus for retention and withdrawal.

Benefits of Joining

  • —Data-informed collection management decisions, while data alone is never going to make collection management decisions for you, it can be used to make more informed decisions about what titles to retain based on overlap with peers, rarity, and usage.
  • —Insurance of retention commitments, the large volume of retention commitments made by the grant partners and those made subsequently by new members can act as an insurance policy, so you can point to the retention commitment as a reason why you can weed your local copies.
  • Guilt free weeding, you can chose to weed those titles committed to retain by members while still retaining access to them via inter library loan.
  • —Freeing up local shelf and storage space.
  • —Contributing towards the common good, even a small number of retention commitments will mean you are contributing towards the common good of managing and preserving the print collection in Maine.

Cost of Collection Analysis Service

The cost of collection analysis services is based on the time it takes to complete the data extracts and compile the above spreadsheets, so the larger the collection the more time it will take to run the comparisons. For libraries with a collection size of under 50,000 print monograph volumes then it will cost $350. Between 50,000 and 100,000 volumes then it will cost $420. There are NO ongoing membership fees.

Documenting & Disclosing Retention Commitments

We will document and disclose your agreed retention commitments in local catalogs, MaineCat, and in OCLC (if you are a member). Documenting the retention commitments will allow you to easily identify those items you have committed to retain and so shouldn’t be withdrawn.

How to Participate

If you are interested in working with us on analyzing your print monograph collection, or just want more information please contact Matthew Revitt (matthew.revitt@maine.edu or 207 581-2665).

There may be other options for libraries who can’t pay fees for the collection analysis service, for further information please contact Matthew. Libraries can also self-nominate titles they feel warrant Maine Shared Collections retention commitments by sending Matthew a list of titles they agree to retain.