Publications

Reflections on Collective Collections

16 January 2020

Brian Lavoie, Lorcan Dempsey, Constance Malpas

Collective collections are the combined holdings of a group of libraries, analyzed and possibly managed as a unified resource. Constructing, understanding, and operationalizing collective collections is an increasingly important aspect of collection management for many libraries. This article presents some general insights about collective collections, drawn from a series of studies conducted by OCLC.

Operationalizing the BIG Collective Collection: A Case Study of Consolidation vs Autonomy

20 August 2019

Lorcan Dempsey, Constance Malpas, Mark Sandler

The proposed framework recommends strategies for advancing the Big Ten Academic Alliance’s (BTAA) collective collections toward a more purposeful coordination of their print collections. It defines four traits of a purposeful collective collection that can also apply broadly to other consortium settings.

What Collaboration Means to Me: Library collaboration is hard; effective collaboration is harder

19 March 2019

Lorcan Dempsey

Dempsey argues that library collaboration is important—especially in a network environment, where scale is key for efficiency and impact—and must be a strategic focus for libraries and partners. Library collaboration is hard; this paper analyzes why and offers suggestions for improvement.

University Futures, Library Futures: Aligning library strategies with institutional directions

18 October 2018

Constance Malpas, Roger Schonfeld, Rona Stein, Lorcan Dempsey, Deanna Marcum

This report proposes a new library services framework for academic libraries in place of a collections model. This report studies the relationship between emerging library service paradigms and different university settings and surveys the importance of library service areas according to library directors.

Academic Library Futures in a Diversified University System

25 June 2018

Lorcan Dempsey, Constance Malpas

The future of academic libraries is transitioning from a collections-based model to a more diffuse services-based model. A new model of excellence for libraries will need to be plural, based on strategic fit to the needs of the institution they serve and not on collection size or gate count.

An Exploration of the Irish Presence in the Published Record

20 February 2018

Brian Lavoie, Lorcan Dempsey

OCLC Research identified more than 1.6 million distinct Irish publications using library collections data in WorldCat and mapped this information with DBpedia to trace shifting cultural patterns over time. This report analyzes distinctive features of Irish publications to examine the Irish influence on the collective public record.