The document discusses the challenges facing research libraries and opportunities for partnerships between the RLG Partnership and OCLC Research. It notes that legacy systems, a reduced sense of relevance, and uncertainty about preparation for change pose risks to libraries. However, it argues that through aggregation, prioritizing unique materials, research, and taking advantage of user contributions and data mining, libraries can remain relevant to researchers.

1. Serving Research: the RLG Partnership and OCLC Research November 17, 2008 John MacColl European Director RLG Partnership OCLC Research November 2009

2. OCLC Research

3. RLG Partners - Geography Japan 1 Middle East 2 Australia and New Zealand 4 UK, Ireland & Continental Europe 23 North America 100

4. Our Partners American Academy in Rome  American Antiquarian Society  American Museum of Natural History  American Philosophical Society  American University in Cairo  American University of Sharjah  Amon Carter Museum  Arizona State University  Art Institute of Chicago  Athenaeum of Philadelphia  Bard Graduate Center/Bard College  Bibliothèque nationale de France  Binghamton University, State University of New York  Boston Public Library  Boston University Pappas Law Library  Brandeis University  Brigham Young University  British Library  Brooklyn Museum  John Carter Brown Library at Brown University  California Digital Library  California Historical Society  Canadian Centre for Architecture  Center for Jewish History  Chemical Heritage Foundation  Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute  Cleveland Museum of Art  Columbia University  Cornell University  Courtauld Institute of Art  Direction des Archives de France  Duke University  Emory University  Fashion Institute of Technology  Florida State University  Folger Shakespeare Library  Fordham University Leo T. Kissam Memorial Law Library  The Frick Collection and Frick Art Reference Library  George Washington University Jacob Burns Law Library  Getty Research Institute  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum  Hagley Museum and Library  Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology  Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion  Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens  Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine  Indiana University Bloomington Institute for Advanced Study  International Institute of Social History (Netherlands)  Keio University  Kimbell Art Museum  King's College London  Library Company of Philadelphia  Library of Congress  Library of Virginia  London School of Economics  Los Angeles County Law Library  Metropolitan Museum of Art  Minnesota Historical Society  Museum of the American West  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston  Museum of Fine Arts, Houston  Museum of Modern Art  National Archives and Records Administration  National Gallery of Art  National Gallery of Canada  National Library of Australia  National Library of New Zealand  National Library of Scotland  Natural History Museum (UK)  Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art  Newberry Library  The New School (university)  New York Academy of Medicine  New York Botanical Garden  New-York Historical Society  New York Public Library  New York State Office of Cultural Education  New York University  Oregon State University  Pennsylvania State University  Philadelphia Museum of Art  Princeton University  Rice University  Rockefeller Archive Center (Rockefeller University)  Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew  Rutgers University  School of Oriental and African Studies  Smithsonian Institution  Southern Methodist University  Underwood Law Library  Stanford University  Stony Brook University, State University of New York  St. Louis Art Museum  Swarthmore College  Swiss National Library  Syracuse University  Temple University  Trinity College Dublin  University of Aberdeen  University of Alberta  University of Arizona  University of British Columbia Asian Library  University of California, Berkeley  University of California, Davis, Law Library  University of California, Los Angeles  University of Cambridge  University of Chicago  University of Edinburgh  University of Florida  University of Glasgow  University of Iowa Law Library  University of Leeds  University of Liverpool  University of Manchester  University of Maryland  University of Melbourne  University of Miami  University of Michigan  University of Minnesota, Twin Cities  University of Oxford  University of Pennsylvania  University of St Andrews  University of Southern California  University of Sydney  University of Texas at Austin  University of Toronto  University of Warwick  University of Washington  Victoria and Albert Museum  Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine  Yale University  Yeshiva University ?

5. Our business is at risk Legacy Technology Human Resources Value Proposition Durable Goods Intellectual Property … a reduced sense of library relevance from below, above, and within … uncertainties about adequate preparation, adaptability, capacity for leadership in face of change … changing value of library collections and space; prices go up, value goes down – accounting doesn’t acknowledge the change … managing and maintaining legacy systems is a challenge; replacement parts are hard to find … losing some traditional assets to commercial providers (e.g. Google Books) and failing to assume clear ownership stake in others (e.g. local scholarly outputs)

6. RLG Partnership themes Japan 1 Middle East 2 Australia and New Zealand 4 UK, Ireland & Continental Europe 23 Noth America 100 Behaviours Resources Operations Aggregation Scale Network effects Uniformity Things to stop Use user power Research research Prioritise the unique Take advantage of aggregation

8. The uniform and the unique (scalar confusion)

9. The Google bar Yale University ?

10. Selection has already been done Woodcut from Sebastian Brant, “ Stultifera…” The ship of fooles… 1570 Edinburgh University Library

11. Change in Photoduplication Policy As of March 17, 2008, the Ransom Center's policy regarding research copies of items from its collections will change. We will no longer furnish photocopies. For all requests received on or after March 17, our default procedure will be to make digital scans of the originals and furnish PDF files (72 dpi) either by email or on CD-ROM. For patrons who are unable to make use of PDFs, printouts will be available in lieu of digital files. For publication purposes, high-resolution images will still be furnished on the same terms as before. Harry Ransom Center, UT Austin Example: Scan on demand

12. Combine approaches ?

13. Be where the (broad) users are Image: informationarchitects.jp/web-trend-map-2008-beta/

14. January 16 th 2008: LC photographs on Flickr

15. 24 hours later Exposure

16. Impact: exposure Flickr: Top 50 LC: Top 6000

17. Contributions How to lose control

18. Go with it

19. Feeding back into our work 89 records updated

20. Innovative mashing ?

21. Be where the (deep) users are

22. The workflow layer: uniformity and uniqueness Rick Luce: ARL/CNI presentation on the future support of eResearch, October 2008

23. User complexity ? accessing assessing chaining disseminating networking Interdisciplinary probing translating Humanities Sciences direct searching scanning co-authoring coordinating monitoring data-sharing browsing collecting re-reading assembling consulting note-taking Adapted from C. Palmer, L. Teffau, C. Pirmann (2009)

24. Researcher environments Researcher Domain Institution Tools & Content Assessment Regime Other Researchers

25. Mobilising Unique Materials ?

26. Expectation, aggregation

27. The elephant in the sector

28. The power of datamining (2005) Rareness is common …

29. The ‘Cloud Library’ Registry Transfers Borrowing System Shared Collections Withdrawals Retrievals Commitments Holdings Loans Disclose Aggregate holdings and joint commitments constitute a shared asset enabling collaborative management strategies Local Collections Procedures Policies Infrastructure Assets Off-Site Collections ReCAP Digitized Library Collections

30. Optimisation at the network level

31. Increase the gravitational power of names ?

33. Partnership working

34. Thank You John MacColl [email_address] OCLC Research