Copac Tools Maureen Pinder Wesline conference 2 nd September 2013 What were trying to do at Leeds Were trying to categorise our collections Heritage legacy selfrenewing finite ID: 634766
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Slide1
How Leeds University Library is using the Copac Tools
Maureen Pinder
Wesline
conference
2
nd
September 2013Slide2
What we’re trying to do at LeedsWe’re trying to categorise our collections:
Heritage, legacy, self-renewing, finite
Drivers:
Space/weeding decisions
Focus spending on most important areas
Prioritisation for digitisation and physical conservation
Aid decision making for collaborative collection managementSlide3
Our initial approachGathered expert opinion from relevant librarians and retired librarians
Identified academics who know collections well
Created Access database to store decisions, with rationale
The downside:
slow
s
ubjective
no expertise in some areas
Needed hard facts/stats on which to base decisionsSlide4
Copac Tools Project
JISC funded project
Phase 1 2010/11
Phase 2 2011/12
Phase 3 2012/13
Current phase: tools available to all RLUK members
Aim to develop tools to improve collection management decisions
Partners: RLUK, MIMAS, Leeds, Sheffield, York, plus associate partners at different stagesSlide5
What the Tool doesIt allows you to compare your collection with other libraries in
Copac
Different partners were using it for different purposes:
To get a profile allowing them to understand the strengths of their collection (Leeds and York)
To know for certain which materials in a collection are common nationally, so that they could weed safely (Sheffield and Manchester)
To get information of their collection they can use for fundraising (UCL)Slide6
The processDecide which collection or bit of collection you want to examine
Create a review file in your Library Management System
Output a list of ISBNs from this review file, and upload into the
Copac
Tool:
http
://copac.ac.uk:8020/test/
Run the search and then export your results into Excel, and save locally
Manipulate the data to pull out the specific information you wantSlide7Slide8
What the results look like 1: how many libraries hold titlesSlide9
What the results look like 2: how many of the books are in each librarySlide10
And how did we make sense of the results?We collected key indicators in a table, which allowed us to compare them
We gradually worked towards a realisation that a collection meeting one of the following measures was potentially ‘heritage’/worthy of further investigation:
15% or more of the titles are in 3 libraries or less
21% or more of the titles are in 4 libraries or less
2 or fewer libraries hold 2/3 of the titlesSlide11
Conclusions so far about our collectionsChemistry is widespread in the country, but Colour Chemistry is rare
Transport is rare
Communications Studies is widespread, but the journalism section is much stronger
French, German, Spanish and Portuguese seem very strong – but we only have partial results
Icelandic is very rare – but only partial results
Health Sciences seems to be widespreadSlide12
But approach with cautionThis only compares our collection with
Copac
libraries
If the subject might be well represented in non-
Copac
libraries, the results might give a false picture, e.g. nursing
There may be
uncatalogued
material in the
Copac
libraries which would make a significant difference to results
Poor quality catalogue records might lead to an item not being found
No guarantee the other libraries will keep their copies, or that they’re in good physical conditionSlide13
Where we are now
The Tool only gives reliable results for items with ISBNs
So we can’t tackle our potentially most interesting collections in Arts, Social Sciences and Science
We’re waiting for the launch of a new
Copac
database, which will allow us to search on other criteria reliably – this winter?
National issues:
Need agreed system for flagging physical condition and intention to keep
Need a body to lead this – RLUK?
Jisc
report on national monograph collections due Dec.
2013Slide14
Further informationFor more
information on all phases of the
Copac
Tools project go to
www.copac.ac.uk
, then to Innovations and then
Collections Management:
http://copac.ac.uk/innovations/collections-management
/
Instructions on using the Tools can be found in the Sheffield and York-Leeds workflow documents under Phase 2.