OCLC has a strong interest in understanding how the scope and scale of library collections and services are changing, and a responsibility to help libraries understand, plan for, and respond to these changes. To advance thinking on these issues, OCLC Research has established a dedicated thematic area— system-wide organization—that draws on our unique research capacity, data resources such as WorldCat, and broad institutional reach. System-wide organization explores the shift from local provisioning of library collections and services to increased reliance on cooperative infrastructure, collective collections, shared technology platforms, and "above-the-institution" management strategies. At the same time, we examine the array of collections and services that are best provided at the level of the local institution. Our research agenda in system-wide organization aims to improve our understanding of the factors that guide institutions in their sourcing and scaling choices as they seek maximum impact and efficient provision of library collections and services.

Activities involve the gathering and analysis of empirical evidence, as well as community consultation and outreach. Collaboration with other research organizations on topics of mutual interest is also an important aspect of our work. The system-wide organization thematic area will promote understanding of the dynamic environment in which today's libraries operate, and help librarians organize collections and services in ways that maximize value from limited resources. Our purpose is to maintain an outcomes-based orientation that is widely applicable, yet sensitive to institutional differences, and can provide useful context for decision-making without necessarily prescribing a single "best" course of action.

Areas of focus

• Scale: Organizing library-related activities at the appropriate scale of provision and consumption (e.g., institution-level, group-level, web). A key issue is identifying activities that are of system-wide benefit, but are beyond the capacity (or even the mission) of any single institution.
• Internalization vs. externalization: Optimizing the balance between library-related activities sourced within the institution and without. Also includes issues relating to "internal boundary shifting": sourcing library-related activities with non-library units on campus.
• Collective collection : Cultivating a deep knowledge of the characteristics of the collective library resource, in order to explore the implications for the organization of collections and collection-based services and to optimize system-wide supply and demand for the library resource.
• Models of system-wide interaction: Describing and assessing alternative models of "above the institution" coordination and collaboration to meet shared resource and service needs.
• Evidence: Accumulating an evidence base of empirical analysis, qualitative assessment, and literature syntheses that helps libraries understand the current state and practical implications of issues in system-wide organization.

How we advance thinking

Activities in the system-wide organization theme provide library managers with critical business intelligence about the evolving landscape of library collections and services, and the organizational structures in which those collections and services are embedded. We focus on:

• Developing frameworks that provide "conceptual scaffolding" for empirical research, and that help people understand key issues, identify trends and patterns, and design effective solutions.
  • Examples:
    Re-thinking the Boundaries of the Academic Library
• Building a shared evidence base that describes the environment in which libraries operate and documents significant shifts in the organization of library operations, collections and services
  • Examples:
    
    • Cloud-sourcing Research Collections: Managing Print in the Mass-digitized Library Environment
    • Print Management at "Mega-scale": a Regional Perspective on Print Book Collections in North America
    • Identifying a National Presence in the Global Library Resource
• Providing a venue for community engagement and stakeholder consultation, where organizational leaders and decision makers can collaborate with peers from across the globe
  • Examples:
    
    • Libraries, Risk and Systemic Change [.pdf]
    • Cloud-sourcing Research Collections: Managing Print in the Mass-digitized Library Environment
• Amplifying our research efforts by:
  • Engaging with individual institutions and groups of institutions interested in the issues addressed in our system-wide organization research agenda. This engagement will include, but is not limited to, the OCLC Research Library Partnership.
  • Collaborating with other research organizations with similar interests in system-wide organization, such as Ithaka and the Digital Library Federation.
  • Leveraging related work in other fields such as economics, business, and strategy. This work will enrich our analysis and help us avoid re-inventing the wheel.

Current work

• Re-thinking the Boundaries of the Academic Library
• Print Management at "Mega-scale": a Regional Perspective on Print Book Collections in North America
• Identifying a National Presence in the Global Library Resource

See the main System-wide organization page for a list of current activities related to this theme.