2009 Annual RLG Partnership Meeting Agenda

Links to meeting presentations and outputs are included in the agenda below.

1-2 June 2009
Boston

Day 1
Monday, 1 June
Venue: Radisson Hotel Boston

200 Stuart Street

Time Event
8:30 a.m.

Registration/Continental Breakfast Buffet

9:30

Welcome and Kick-Off

Jim Michalko (Vice President, RLG Partnership) and Lorcan Dempsey (Chief Strategist and Vice President, OCLC Research)

View Jim's slides here. (Links to external site.)

10:00 Break
10:30

Update Sessions (Round 1)

Updates on ongoing work being undertaken within the RLG Partnership and OCLC Research.

  • * Scholarly Information Practices in the Online Environment (.pdf: 1MB/31pp.)

    This update session summarized the findings of an OCLC report commissioned from Carole Palmer and UIUC colleagues. The report identified themes in the literature having to do with disciplinary differences and commonalities. The discussion focused on how library services can support current scholarly practices, exemplary efforts, and how the library community may need to work together in new ways to meet these needs.

    Organizers: Constance Malpas and Ricky Erway

    *This presentation was made available to remote attendees via WebEx. View the recording (audio and slides) as a .wmv (82.8MB/1:11min.) or .mp4 (160MB/1:11min.) or download it in the iTunes Store.
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  • SHARES (.pdf: 119/38pp.)

    This update session provided status on activites within the resource sharing partnership since the previous annual meeting. About half the 90 minute session was devoted to discussion. Attendees expressed keen interest in rethinking the reciprocal onsite access program, establishing more up-to-date costs for borrowing and lending than are currently available, and steamlining processes for lending from electronic publications. Current directions of the SHARES Executive Group work plan were confirmed as the correct ones.

    Organizer: Dennis Massie
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  • Names and Identities (.pdf: 3.31MB/39pp.)

    This session reviewed the problem space—names that are ambiguous and take different forms depending on context. Information sufficient to identify and distinguish people and organizations is widely dispersed. The RLG Partners Networking Names Advisory Group's report posited requirements derived from fourteen use case scenarios for a "Cooperative Identities Hub" that would provide a framework to concatenate authoritative information and a gateway to all forms of names using a social networking model. WorldCat Identities incorporates some of the Hub components. Organizations can bring in information from WorldCat Identities into their own environments.

    Organizers: Karen Smith-Yoshimura and Thom Hickey
  •  
  • Archives User Studies and Archival WorldCat Records (.pdf: 718K/16pp.)

    In this presentation, Jennifer Schaffner and Jackie Dooley shared details of two interrelated projects within the Effectively Disclose Archival and Special Collections Program. Jennifer's overview of her recently released OCLC Research report, The Metadata is the Interface: Better Description for Better Discovery of Archives and Special Collections, Synthesized from User Studies (.pdf: 191K/18 pp.), served to focus a discussion of what we have learned from the dozens of archival user studies published in recent years. Jackie reported on her work to analyze the one million archival WorldCat records to evaluate patterns of existing practice and determine ways in which archival cataloging could be simplified and made more effective. Further building on these two projects, forthcoming analysis of query logs will help reveal ways in which discovery of archival materials via online systems can be rendered more successful overall.

    Organizers: Jackie Dooley and Jennifer Schaffner Jennifer Schaffner
12:00 p.m.

Lunch

1:30

Update Sessions (Round 2)

  • * Managing Shared Print Collections (.pdf: 669K/38pp.)

    This update session started out with a review of work completed on the Print Journals Preservation Project and by the working group on deaccessioning print journal backfiles since the previous annual meeting. Work plans for the coming year were presented, including a project to create a print journals deaccessioning decision tree and another to promote the broader use of the 583 MARC tag for recording retention and preservation commitments for both monographic and serials holdings. Finally, details were shared about an upcoming project whereby an institution with a stated desire to divest itself of some portion of its print collections (NYU) will rely upon access to holdings in an offsite print storage facility (ReCAP) and in a cooperative digital collection (HathiTrust) as they make local collection management decisions. Discussion by a combination of attedees already party to these activities and others new to the conversation confirmed the general directions of the work.

    Organizers: Constance Malpas and Dennis Massie

    *This presentation was made available to remote attendees via WebEx. View the recording (audio and slides) as a .wmv (100MB/1:16min.) or .mp4 (164MB/1:16min.) or download it in the iTunes Store.
  •  
  • Virtual International Authority File (.pdf: 571K/28pp.)

    In this session, Thom Hicky and Ed O'Neill gave an update on the Virtual International Authority File (VIAF), an international service to provide free access to the world's major authority files that record the standardized form of name and variant forms of names for people. VIAF virtually combines multiple name authority files into a single name authority service. The VIAF system is envisioned as one of the building blocks for the Semantic Web to enable future switching of the displayed form of names for persons in the language and script requested by the Web user.

    Organizers: Thom Hickey and Ed O'Neill
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  • Thinking Beyond Copyright (.pdf: 360K/31pp.)

    This update session began with a summary of activity related to copyright and digitization to provide access (OCLC's Copyright Evidence Registry, SAA best practices, status of Orphan Works legislation and the Google Books settlement) and proceeded with a lively discussion of the benefits of assessing status to determine out of copyright works and pursue permissions for in copyright works, and rights issues as they pertain to unpublished materials. Advice was given on plans for an event on balancing mission and risk in providing improved access to special collections.

    Organizer: Merrilee Proffitt and Ricky Erway
  •  
  • Works Pages in WorldCat (.pdf: 754K/16pp.)

    The purpose of this session was to introduce participants to a project in which catalog data is aggregated at the work level to create rich descriptions for library resources. Attendees discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the approach for various tasks and user groups. Participants also identified areas for further exploration.

    Organizer: Diane Vizine-Goetz
3:00

Break

3:45

Cool New Tools (Part 1)

Throughout the year, staff in OCLC Research launch or improve experimental services, design innovative tools and develop new widgets that make using our collective resources simpler and more effective. These kiosks gave partners the opportunity to learn more about cool new tools.

4:30

Networking Library Services: A Glimpse at the Future—Moving Library Management Services to Web-Scale (.pdf: 4.5MB/33pp.)

In a special plenary session, Andrew Pace, OCLC Executive Director for Networked Library Services, shared his provocative views on how library services of the future will move to a Web-scale cooperative platform and on how OCLC is shaping its service offerings to reflect that new landscape.

5:00

Cocktails/Reception

7:00

Dinner

Sign-up sheets were provided (some with reservations at nearby restaurants) to help ensure that everyone who wanted one had a dinner coterie.

Day 2
Tuesday, 2 June
Venue: Radisson Hotel Boston

200 Stuart Street

Time Event
9:00 a.m.

Continental Breakfast and Partner Networking

10:00

Penny Carnaby, Chief Executive and National Librarian

National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa

 

Penny Carnaby, in her first appearance at an RLG Partnership Annual Meeting, shared her insights on the role that NLNZ and other national libraries play in building the frameworks and implementing the strategies that will ultimately result in new roles and relationships with our users. She outlined a set of dynamic, exciting and actionable recommendations on how national libraries can work together with academic libraries, archives and museums to innovate, engage with and best support the global research community.

11:00

Cool New Tools (Part 2)

Here are more experiments to make data work harder for professionals and end users.

12:00 p.m.

Lunch

  • The National Library of Australia's New Discovery Service (.pdf: 1MB/17pp.)
    Warwick Cathrow from the National Library of Australia shared the process the National Library of Australia went through to determine how to build and manage the world's best collection relating to "Australia" containing both digital and analog resources.

 

1:30

Update Sessions (Round 3)

  • * Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access (.pdf: 185K/19pp.)

    In this presentation, Brian Lavoie talked about the economic challenges of long-term digital preservation. He framed out digital preservation as an economic problem, described the work of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access (which he co-chairs), and discussed some of the Task Force's findings to date. Participants also shared their thoughts and perspectives in a discussion that followed the presentation. The goal of this session was to give participants a better understanding of the economic issues involved in building sustainable digital preservation activities.

    Organizer: Brian Lavoie

    *This presentation was made available to remote attendees via WebEx. View the recording (audio and slides) as a .wmv (105MB/1:20min.) or .mp4 (176MB/1:20min.) or download it in the iTunes Store.
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  • Research Information Management (RIM) (.pdf: 1.2MB/32pp.)

    This update session provided status on RIM activity since the previous annual meeting and seek input on ways forward. About an hour of the 90 minute session was devoted to discussion. A combination of attendees already on working groups and others new to the discussion raised some new ideas and confirmed the general directions.

    Organizers: Ricky Erway and John MacColl
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  • Journals Preservation Project (.pdf: 719K/33pp.)

    This update session was intended to provide status on a prospective effort to establish generic workflow patterns for identifying, assigning, validating, and extracting preservation commitments regarding scarcely-held print journal titles in the humanities and social sciences. A related and ongoing effort to promote the broader use of the 583 MARC tag for recording retention and preservation commitments for print serials holdings was also highlighted. One important aspect of the follow-up discussion by working group members and some folks new to the conversation was the probability that not all at-risk scholarly journals available only in print are worth the trouble and expense of saving.

    Organizers: Constance Malpas and Dennis Massie
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  • OhioLINK Collection Analysis (.pdf: 2.3MB/42pp.)

    In this session, Ed O ' provided preliminary results from the OhioLINK Collection Analysis Project in which OCLC Research analyzed usage and holdings of a statewide catalog with shared depositories and patron-initiated borrowing with nearly 50 million materials used by over 600,000 patrons from virtually all academic libraries in Ohio. The goals of this project were to reduce duplication, increase local collection development activities, expand the amount of money spent on cooperative acquisitions and to strengthen the collective collection.

    Organizer: Ed O'Neill
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  • Social Metadata (.pdf: 2.6MB/25pp.)

    Traditional metadata helped people find data, but metadata also helps us understand and evaluate what we find. Social metadata enlists engaged communities in these tasks. This session presented some examples of various types of social metadata sites that the RLG Partner Social Metadata Working Group has been reviewing and some initial observations from the 67 reviews of 32 social metadata sites done so far. The discussion focused on why people contribute, why we have such a professional interest in tagging, and a "wish list" of user contributions that would most enrich the resources offered by libraries, archives and museums.

    Organizer: Karen Smith-Yoshimura
3:00

Break

3:30

The HathiTrust Digital Repository and Shared Research Collections: 'Seeding' the Cloud Library (.pdf: 755K/21pp.)

John Wilkin, University of Michigan, presented an overview of the game-changing work he and his colleagues are doing with the HathiTrust that is generating lots of interest and will likely have a significant impact on the community at large.

4:45

Closing Remarks

5:30–7:30

Reception at the Boston Public Library

View the 3 June Symposium agenda.

See who registered to attend the Annual Meeting and Symposium.