Posts tagged under: Research

Listening to library leaders: Surveys capture real-time perspectives shaping decisions across the field

Funding and resourcing, technology, staffing, community needs and expectations—the pace of change library leaders now need to navigate and lead their organizations through is nothing short of breathtaking. Trends that took years to evolve now demand responses and strategic planning within months, or even days. Grounding those choices in rigorous, in-depth research remains essential.  

At the same time, library decision-makers benefit from collective wisdom and insights shared among peers. Knowing how others are responding to similar pressures can help leaders calibrate their strategies and avoid reinventing the wheel. When those insights are confined to personal or regional networks, the limited perspective can restrict leaders’ views of how priorities and decisions are shifting. 

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Scaling de-duplication in WorldCat: Balancing AI innovation with cataloging care

We first shared our efforts for leveraging machine learning to improve de-duplication in WorldCat in this 2023 blog post on “Machine Learning and WorldCat.”

De-duplication has always been essential to maintaining the quality of WorldCat by enhancing cataloging efficiency and streamlining quality. But with bibliographic data pouring in faster than ever, we need to address the challenge of keeping records accurate, connected, and accessible at speed. AI-powered de-duplication offers an innovative way to scale this work quickly and efficiently, but its success depends on human expertise. At OCLC, we’ve invested resources into a hybrid approach, leveraging AI to process vast amounts of data while ensuring catalogers and OCLC experts remain at the center of decision-making.

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How linked data can help libraries make more of an impact online

Graphic banner for linked data blog post showing WorldCat Entities linked data text on a futuristic background

In a recent post, I introduced the topic of linked data for libraries and OCLC’s plans for moving forward. Today, let’s dig into the details on how linked data amplifies the knowledge in library collections and the tools we can use to make it happen.

This shift toward linked data isn’t just a technology upgrade, but a long-term strategy for enhancing the findability and accessibility of the important materials that libraries curate and manage. It’s a technical challenge, yes. But I also believe it’s a chance to better promote our values.

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Libraries and open access discovery

OA 2023 banner image

Co-author: Titia van der Werf

The theme of this year’s Open Access Week is “Community over Commercialization.” It’s designed to “encourage a candid conversation about which approaches to open scholarship prioritize the best interests of the public and the academic community—and which do not.”

This is an important theme for OCLC. As a membership organization that doesn’t return profit to shareholders or private owners, our sole focus is on supporting libraries. This means that finding ways for libraries to provide better access to open content is a priority. One effort underway right now is the Open Access Discovery project in partnership with two Dutch library consortia—Universiteitbibliotheken en Nationale Bibliotheek (UKB) and Samenwerkingsverband Hogeschoolbibliotheken (SHB).

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Redefining the library experience: Global insights for future planning

Libraries are no stranger to change. As community expectations shift, so do our libraries. This adaptability was on full display during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. But as that pressure has subsided, we’re seeing widespread reflection around what libraries will look like in the future. Many library leaders are thinking about fundamental transformations, with the goal of creating a more impactful library experience for their users.

During the past year, OCLC Global Council and OCLC Research explored the idea of the changing library experience by focusing on topics such as community engagement, collaboration, and innovative programs that meet library users’ evolving needs and expectations. Planning for this work was informed by efforts associated with our New Model Library: Pandemic Effects and Library Directions research. And it was accomplished through online thought leadership webinars and a global survey that spanned all library sizes and types. What we learned is that libraries will continue to be necessary infrastructure for supporting local communities. And to deliver impact, there’s increasing need for partnership and library staff support.

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New Model Library: Plan for positive change in the midst of challenges

Co-authors:  Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Ph.D. | Brittany Brannon | Brooke Doyle | Brian Lavoie, Ph.D. 

When we did the research for the New Model Library: Pandemic Effects and Library Directions briefing, a term that came up often was “normal” (Is this change part of a new normal? When will this activity get back to normal?). While interesting, these questions don’t acknowledge that libraries are incredibly diverse in terms of culture, size, type, goals, and locations. And the term “normal” isn’t really helpful without additional context. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic is a singular, global upheaval that affects everyone who works at and uses libraries.

So how do we discuss the impact this global upheaval is having on a set of very different institutions and individuals and their plans for the future?

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Build on strengths when responding to a crisis

REALM banner

As the REALM project (REopening Archives, Libraries, and Museums) continues to gather and adapt science-based information to inform local decision making by libraries, archives, and museums, it’s been essential to listen to the real-world experiences at these institutions. These perspectives ensure that the information is relevant to the operations and services of the field. In a collection of nine interviews, leaders of libraries, museums, and member associations describe how they leveraged their institutions’ core strengths and drew upon trusted partners to navigate the crisis, helping to protect the health and well-being of staff and community members. These interviews help identify common ground among institutions in their response to a global crisis and spotlight opportunities for local partnerships between different types of cultural heritage institutions that can strengthen resources and local impact.

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The cat that didn’t bark

About a year ago, OCLC completed a two-year project (funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation) with the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) that, among other enhancements, added support for the registration of serial retention commitments in WorldCat. These enhancements not only help improve discovery of shared print data (PDF) across all OCLC services, but also bolster CRL’s Print Archives Preservation Registry (PAPR) and other partner efforts.

At the time that project was completed, we estimated OCLC and its member institutions would register about 15 million commitments over the course of the year. As of today, the community has actually added more than 25 million retention commitments.

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The Wikipedia research conundrum: Is it citable?

There is a disconnect between how students are taught to use Wikipedia and the way that they actually use it. The notion of an encyclopedia that anyone can edit has led teachers to warn that Wikipedia is unreliable and should never be used or cited as a source of serious research. In reality, most of us use Wikipedia all the time in our research. Defenders of Wikipedia’s contribution model even point out that democratization of contribution is beneficial and necessary for the level of breadth, depth, and reliability it has achieved. If Wikipedia’s open contribution model doesn’t stop researchers from using it, why are students taught to avoid it?

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The rapid pace of change in research university libraries: An interview with Keith Webster

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Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Keith Webster, Dean of University Libraries and Director of Emerging and Integrative Media Initiatives at Carnegie Mellon University. We discussed how academic libraries have changed in the last two decades, reflecting on the growth of digital content and the rapidly evolving scholarly record. I also asked Keith to imagine the research library of the future and to share where his own library is heading in the near term, with investments in multi-purpose repositories, RIM systems, and increasing support for research analytics and institutional reputation management.

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