1 Introduction to the WorldCat Collection Analysis Service

1.1 Introduction to WorldCat Collection Analysis

The WorldCat^® Collection Analysis service is a web-accessible collection analysis tool which supports multiple aspects of library collections management.

Collection Content

You can search for, display, print and download information about your collection(s) as represented by your holdings in WorldCat.

The service's subject analysis dimension presents your holdings according to the OCLC Conspectus, a proprietary three-level subject hierarchy described in section 1.2, "The OCLC Conspectus" below. In addition to subject coverage, you can view a collection's makeup in terms of other analysis dimensions that include:

• Age of materials (Publication Date)
• Languages of publication (Language)
• Material formats (Format)
• Audience levels (Audience)
• Call Number
• Relationship to other collections and to WorldCat (Library, Holding Count, Shared By)

in whatever order you choose. See section 1.4, "Analysis Dimensions" for the full list and description of all analysis dimensions.

Your library can then compare its holdings to those of:

• OCLC collections such as all of WorldCat, and the Electronic Books and NetLibrary databases
• Authoritative collection development lists such as Booklist, Books for College Libraries and Outstanding Academic Titles
• Other libraries of your own choosing, on both an individual and group level
• Other libraries chosen by OCLC for the significance and/or specialization of their collections

These comparisons show titles held in common with one or more comparison libraries (called overlap); titles that are unique to your own library (called uniqueness); titles held by one or more comparison libraries that are not owned by your library.

Local use

You can track how your library's collection is used within your own community via a Circulation Analysis. This analysis tracks circulation activity at the title level, with title defined as an item having a unique OCLC accession number. Activity of individual items (that is, copies of the same title) is shown at the barcode level.

In addition to the general collection content dimensions shown above, analysis dimensions for circulation activity include:

• Checkout date
• Location (if available)

See section 1.4, "Analysis Dimensions" for the full list and description of all analysis dimensions.

Interlibrary loan activity

You can also determine external use of your collection, as well as discover potential areas for acquisition, by tracking your collection's borrowing and lending activity within WorldCat Resource Sharing.

In addition to the general collection content dimensions shown above, analysis dimensions for borrowing and lending activity include:

• Library role (Borrower or Lender)
• Date, frequency or cost of request
• Holding status
• Copy (photocopy) vs loan

See section 1.4, "Analysis Dimensions" for the full list and description of all analysis dimensions.

Timeliness

The supporting database is updated quarterly. For newly subscribing institutions, their analyses will include all holdings information preceding the most recent quarterly database update (January, April, July, October). These institutions' holdings will become fully current with the first update after they have subscribed to the service.

Circulation Analysis. Circulation data is updated annually with the January update.

1.2 The OCLC Conspectus

The OCLC^® Conspectus is a subject hierarchy consisting of divisions, categories, and subject descriptors. The Conspectus provides a framework to systematically inventory and describe library collections, and can be used with Dewey ^® Decimal, Library of Congress and National Library of Medicine classifications.

The Conspectus is structured in hierarchical order, from broad divisions to very specific subjects. Each level is an increasingly detailed partition of the previous level. The three levels in the OCLC Conspectus, in hierarchical order, are:

Classification numbers

Classification numbers from the WorldCat master record are mapped to each of the divisions, categories, and subjects of the OCLC Conspectus. Library of Congress (LC) and Dewey Decimal (DDC) numbers are mapped to the same Conspectus structure. National Library of Medicine (NLM) classification numbers are mapped to six NLM-only divisions.

For Canadian users, we have included:

• FC1-4350 for Canadian history
• PS8001-8599 for Canadian literature

To see these classification numbers, position (or hover) the cursor over a term so that the normal pointer becomes the hand pointer. The classification numbers will appear in a yellow box below the hand.

Classification numbers are chosen as follows:

• If the value in field 050 ‡a, Library of Congress Call Number, of the WorldCat master record does not match a value within the Conspectus, the system checks the value of each field in the list below until it finds a matching value. (See descriptions in OCLC Bibliographic Formats and Standards, 0xx fields, for more information.)
  • 086 ‡a Government Document Classification Number
  • 060 ‡a National Library of Medicine Call Number
  • 096 ‡a Locally Assigned NLM-Type Call Number
  • 090 ‡a Locally Assigned LC-Type Call Number
  • 055 0 ‡a Classification Number Assigned in Canada; held by Library and Archives Canada
  • 055 1 ‡a Classification Number Assigned in Canada; not held by Library and Archives Canada
  • 082 ‡a Dewey Decimal Classification Number
  • 092 ‡a Locally Assigned Dewey Call Number
    
    
• If no matching values are found or there is no field 050 ‡a on the master record, the work is put in the Unknown Classification division.

1.3 Types of Analysis

The WorldCat Collection Analysis service provides five types of analyses. Libraries subscribing to the service as individual institutions have access to the Individual Library Analysis, the Individual Library Comparison and the ILL Analyses. Libraries subscribing as part of a group have access to the Group Analysis and the Aggregated Group Analysis.

Individual Library Analysis

The Individual Library Analysis presents your library's holdings — and only your library's holdings — according to your selected analysis dimensions.

Example:

For the Conspectus Category of Architecture, this library has eight holdings published before 1500.

This analysis is automatically created for libraries subscribing to WorldCat Collection Analysis as individual institutions and appears as My Library in the Basic Analyses area of the Data to Analyze screen.

Individual Library Comparison

An Individual Library Comparison allows you to compare your library's holdings to the collections of other OCLC member libraries. For this analysis type, you create a comparison group of from one to ten libraries. Within the group, titles from all group members are combined and duplicates are removed so that the group appears as a single institution. The resulting analysis is called a Peer Comparison (see Chapter 8, "Peer Comparisons" for more information).

Example:

The libraries that make up the Spokane Area comparison group have a total of 80 titles published before 1500. Your library has 12 holdings published before 1500.

You must create an Individual Library Comparison using the WorldCat Services Administrative Module (see Chapter 2, "Administrative Functions"). There is no limit to the number of comparison groups that you can create, but the group name must be unique among all groups created under the same authorization. To be included in any Individual Library Comparison a library must have holdings in WorldCat.

Other applications.  The Individual Library Comparison is the basis for several additional analyses that compare your library to certain specific collections. These analyses include:

• WorldCat and WorldCat (FRBR Applied) (see Chapter 5, "Basic Analyses")
• Authoritative lists, that is, selected authoritative collection development lists (see Chapter 7, "Authoritative Lists")
• Predefined groups, that is, OCLC-defined groups of libraries ( Chapter 10, "Predefined Groups")

ILL Analysis

The ILL Analysis presents an individual library's borrowing and lending activity within WorldCat Resource Sharing. As Borrower you can track your activity by request date, request frequency, or request cost. As Lender you can track your activity by request date or request frequency.

Example:

For this library as Borrower tracking its requests by frequency, a total of 48 borrowing requests were submitted as of the last WorldCat Collection Analysis quarterly update. Thirty-five items were requested only once; two were requested more than 10 times.

The ILL Analyses are available only to libraries that subscribe to WorldCat Collection Analysis as individual institutions. You must create an analysis for My Library as Borrower and/or My Library as Lender using the WorldCat Services Administrative Module (see Chapter 2, "Administrative Functions").

Circulation Analysis

The Circulation Analysis presents the local circulation activity for an individual library's collection.

Example:

This Circulation Analysis shows that this library owns a total of 15,539 titles in the Conspectus category of Anthropology. For 1999, a total of 2,336 checkouts were for titles in this category.

The Circulation Analysis is available only to libraries that subscribe to WorldCat Collection Analysis as individual institutions. You must create the analysis using the WorldCat Services Administrative Module (see Chapter 2, "Administrative Functions").

Group Analysis

A Group Analysis shows the titles for the individual member libraries within a group, according to the selected analysis dimensions. This enables networks and consortia to gauge each member's strengths and deficiencies.

Example:

Among the members of the group shown here, Portland State University has the greatest number of pre-1500 titles (107) and Boise State University has the least (2).

This analysis is automatically created when a group of libraries subscribes to WorldCat Collection Analysis as a Subscription Group, and appears as [group name] in the Basic Analyses area of the Data to Analyze screen.

Aggregated Group Analysis

An Aggregated Group Analysis combines the titles of all members of the Subscription Group and then removes duplicates so that the group appears as a single institution.

Example:

In the Education division, this group collectively holds 127 titles falling in the 1700-1799 date range.

This analysis is automatically created when a group of libraries subscribes to WorldCat Collection Analysis as a Subscription Group, and appears as [ group name (Aggregated) ] in the Basic Analyses area of the Data to Analyze screen.

Other applications.  The Aggregated Group Analysis is the basis for several additional analyses that compare your group's holdings to certain specific collections. These analyses include:

• WorldCat (see Chapter 5, "Basic Analyses")
• Authoritative lists, that is, selected authoritative collection development lists (see Chapter 7, "Authoritative Lists")
• Secondary groups:, that is subsets of the Subscription Group (see Chapter 9, "Secondary Groups")
• Predefined groups, that is, OCLC-defined groups of libraries (see Chapter 10, "Predefined Groups")

back to top

1.4 Analysis Dimensions

The service allows you view your collection from a number of different aspects called analysis dimensions, and to manipulate the order in which the dimensions are displayed. The additional dimensions are: Publication Date, Language, Format, Audience, Library, Library Role (Borrower or Lender), Holding Count, Holding Status, Copy vs Loan.

Not all dimensions are available for all analysis types.

Publication Date

Publication dates are grouped into these ranges:

Publication date ranges will change as years are added.

Date ranges are based on MARC record fields:

• 008, bytes 7-10 (Date 1)

• 260 ‡c (Date of publication, distribution, etc.)

Call Number

You can limit your analysis by LC, Dewey, or NLM call number. Limiting by call number results in the list of records from the Conspectus Subject that contains the call number you entered. The more precise the call number, the narrower your results.

Note: You must enter a single call number such as ND1630. You cannot enter a range such as ND1630-1640.

Language

Fifty-four languages from the MARC Code List for Languages appear as analysis results. The remaining languages are grouped under Other.

The actual language of an item will always display on a List of Records and on its Detailed Record.

Language is based on MARC record Field 008, bytes 35-37 (Language)

Format

The WorldCat Collection Analysis service uses these material types.

Format is based on the MARC record Leader (LDR), bytes 6 (Type of Record) and 7 (Bibliographic level).

Audience

The WorldCat Collection Analysis service uses the same levels and the same mapping criteria as the OCLC FirstSearch Service: Adult and Juvenile.

Audience is based on MARC record Field 008, byte 22 (Target audience).

Library

When the selected analysis includes institutions in addition to your library, results may be displayed by individual library name. See Individual Library Comparison and Group Analysis.

Borrower/lender

For any analysis of ILL activity a library is identified as either the Borrower or the Lender.

Holding status

For a My Library as Borrower ILL Analysis, this dimension shows how many borrowing requests were submitted for items not owned by the library. This dimension is not available for a My Library as Lender analysis.

Holding count

When the selected analysis involves a comparison between:

• An individual library and a group of libraries, or
• An aggregated group analysis and another aggregated group

results may be displayed according to the number of libraries within a group that hold a given title.

Example:

This Individual Library Comparison is between the Heartland Memorial Library and a local group consisting of three community college libraries. Heartland Memorial Library holds a total of 248 titles, and the group holds a total of 599 titles.

Expanding Local Community Coll. shows that of the group's 599 titles:

• 284 are held by only one of the libraries
• 177 are held by two of the libraries
• 138 are held by all three libraries

See Individual Library Comparison and Aggregated Group Analysis.

Shared By

For a WorldCat Comparison, this dimension shows how widely a given item is held within WorldCat.

Individual institutions.  For a library subscribing as an individual institution, the analysis indicates how many of your library's holdings are:

• Unique to your collection, that is, held in WorldCat only by your library
• Held in WorldCat by your library and by only one other library
• Held in WorldCat by your library and by two other libraries
• Held in WorldCat by your library and by three other libraries

and so on up to held by your library and by more than 10 other libraries in WorldCat

Groups.  For a library subscribing as a member of a group, WorldCat Collection Analysis combines the titles of all the group member libraries and removes duplicates, treating the group as though it were a single institution. This combined (or aggregated) group is compared to all of WorldCat and the analysis indicates how many of the group's holdings are held in WorldCat:

• Only within your group
• Within your group and held by only one other library that is not a member of your group
• Within your group and held by two other libraries that are not members of your group
• Within your group and held by three other libraries that are not members of your group

and so on up to held within your group and by more than 10 other libraries that are not members of your group.

Request Date

For ILL Analyses this dimension shows the total number of items requested (Borrower) or shipped (Lender). You can view data by annual or quarterly totals.

Request Frequency

For ILL Analyses this dimension shows how often a request was submitted (Borrower) or shipped (Lender). You can view aggregate or annual totals

Request Cost

For ILL Analyses this dimension shows how much your library paid (in ranges of U.S. dollars) for items you borrowed.

Copy vs loan

For a My Library as Borrower ILL Analysis, this dimension shows how many borrowing requests were submitted for physical items that the library expects to ship back to the Lender ( loan - such as books or videos) as opposed to items that it does not expect to ship back to the Lender ( copy - such as copies of journal articles).

For a My Library as Lender analysis, this dimension shows how many items were shipped that the Lender expects to be returned and checked back into its collection ( loan - such as books or videos) as opposed to items that it does not expect to be returned ( copy - such as copies of journal articles).

Checkout Date

For a Circulation Analysis, this dimension identifies the year in which items were checked out.

Location

For a Circulation Analysis, this dimension identifies the specific library or collection from which items were checked out, for example: Juvenile or Popular Reading.

1.5 Overlap

The Overlap view of an analysis shows the number of titles your library holds in common with other libraries/institutions. This view is available for Group Analyses ( Chapter 5), Authoritative List Comparisons ( Chapter 7), Peer Comparisons ( Chapter 8), Secondary Groups ( Chapter 9) and Predefined Groups ( Chapter 10). See the relevant chapter for details.

Peer, One-to-one, Predefined Groups

For these comparisons, Overlap shows the number of titles that the subscribing library owns jointly with the collective titles (duplicates removed) of an individual peer institution (One-to-one comparison), of its two- to ten-member Comparison Group (Peer Comparison), or of an OCLC-defined group (Predefined Group).

Example: Peer Comparison

For this comparison:

• Your library owns a total of 586,101 holdings.
• The Spokane Area group collectively owns 857,122 titles.
• Your library and the group own 18,188 titles in common.

Group, Secondary group, Predefined group

For these analyses, Overlap is the number of titles each library owns jointly with another library in the group.

Example: Group Analysis

Among the members of the Western Group:

• Eastern Washington University (WEA) holds 1076 titles in common with Boise State University (OIP)
• Portland State University (ORZ) holds 80 titles in common with Idaho State University (ONB)

back to top

1.6 Uniqueness

The Uniqueness view of an analysis shows how many of your library's titles are held by you alone. This view is available for Group Analyses ( Chapter 5), Peer Comparisons ( Chapter 8), Secondary Groups ( Chapter 9) and Predefined Groups ( Chapter 10). See the relevant chapter for details.

Peer, One-to-one, Predefined Group

For these comparisons, Uniqueness shows how many of a library's titles are not shared with an individual peer institution (One-to-one comparison), with its two- to ten-member Comparison Group (Peer Comparison), or with an OCLC-defined group (Predefined Group).

Example: Peer Comparison

For this comparison:

• Your library owns a total of 652,489 holdings; 636,888 are owned by you exclusively and 15,601 are also owned by the Tacoma Area group.
• The Tacoma Area group collectively owns 53,986 titles; 38,385 are owned within the group and 15,601 are also owned by your library.

Group, Secondary Group, Predefined Group

For these analyses, Uniqueness shows how many of a library's titles are shared with one group member, two group members, three group members, and so on.

Example: Group Analysis

Among the members of the Western Group, Eastern Washington University has:

• 80 titles that are shared with one other member of the group
• 90 titles that are shared with two other members of the group
• 50 titles that are shared with three other members of the group

back to top

1.7 Overlap/Uniqueness Implementation

For any given item, within the WorldCat Collection Analysis service uniqueness is defined as the lack of an identical record within the comparison library or group. Record matching is based on the OCLC number assigned to each record. Since libraries set their holdings on specific records, those libraries who have set their holdings on the same record (with its unique OCLC number) will match when a comparison is created.

Various differences in the makeup of an item trigger creation of a new record. Such differences can include:

• additional author (textbooks)
• illustrations
• language/translator
• material type (book vs recorded CD)
• different publisher (U.S. vs Europe)

The creation of a new record—and therefore a new OCLC number—prevents matching for different formats of what is essentially the same intellectual content.

Example: overlap

This edition of Don Quixote (OCLC 20459410, Las Americas Publishing, 1966) is held by 9 libraries which include Atlanta University (Atlanta, GA) and the University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC). In a comparison between:

• Atlanta University and the University of South Carolina, or
• Atlanta University and a group that includes the University of South Carolina (shown above)

this title is counted in the Overlap column since both libraries have set holdings on the same OCLC record.

Example: uniqueness

• Atlanta University and the Jacksonville State University (shown), or
• Atlanta University and a group that includes Jacksonville State University

this title is counted in the Unique column for both Atlanta University and Jacksonville State or Jacksonville State's group since the libraries have set holdings on different OCLC records.

Example: group overlap

If Atlanta University and the University of South Carolina are members of the same Subscription group, Don Quixote (OCLC 20459410) is counted for each library on the Overlap tab because they have set holdings on the same OCLC record.

Example: group uniqueness

If Atlanta University and the University of South Carolina are members of the same Subscription Group, Don Quixote (OCLC 20459410) is counted in the Shared by 2 column on the Uniqueness tab because both libraries have set holdings on the same OCLC record. (assuming no other library in the group has set holdings on this record).

If Jacksonville University is also a member of this same Subscription Group, its Don Quixote (OCLC 15714565) is counted in the Unique column (assuming no other library in the group has set holdings on this record.