Publications

Libraries and the Informational Future: Some Notes (302 K/18 pp.).
Presented at the Information Professionals 2050 (IP 2050) Conference, this paper discusses environmental trends for libraries and some consequences for library education. The overarching theme is that we need to prepare for systemic changes by better understanding how organizations are being reshaped by networks.The e-print linked here is a slightly edited version of a chapter of the same name which appears in Information Professionals 2050: Educational Possibilities and Pathways, ed. Gary Marchionini and Barbara B. Moran, 113-26. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Identifying Threats to Successful Digital preservation: The SPOT Model for Risk Assessment
This paper proposes a new outcome-based model, the Simple Property-Oriented Threat (SPOT) Model for Risk Assessment, benchmarks it, provide examples of practical uses of the model and suggestions for future work. D-Lib Magazine, 18,9/10 (September/October).

Swatting the Long Tail of Digital Media: A Call for Collaboration
This OCLC Research report urges a collaborative approach for conversion of content on various types of digital media.

Using Authorities to Improve Subject Searches
This paper describes searchFAST, a FAST-based retrieval prototype developed to test the feasibility of using an authority file as an index to bibliographic records. It was presented 17 August 2012 at the IFLA satellite post-conference in Tallinn (Estonia).

You've Got to Walk Before You Can Run: First Steps for Managing Born-Digital Content Received on Physical Media
This report is geared to those tasked with gaining preliminary control over the digital media in archives' collections, including those who don’t know where to begin in managing born-digital materials.

Print Management at 'Mega-scale': A Regional Perspective on Print Book Collections in North America
In this OCLC Research briefing paper, Brian Lavoie provides an overview for the National Digital Public Library conference.
A complete list of OCLC Research publications is available online at: http://www.oclc.org/research/publications/.
Prototypes and Services
assignFAST—a new Web service that automates the manual selection of FAST Subjects (the Authorized and Use For headings) based on autosuggest technology. The service can easily be added to an existing browser-based interface, providing both subject selection and authority control in a single step. Three gadget URLs are provided in a common (non-MARC) format, an OCLC Connexion®-style format, and a MARCBreaker-style format. A demo shows how the feature can be integrated into an existing interface.
Article Exchange—This document-sharing site provides a single, secure location where lending libraries can place requested materials and authorized library users can retrieve articles or other items obtained for them via interlibrary loan. Originally an Innovation Lab prototype, Article Exchange migrated to production on 13 January and now is part of the WorldCat Resource SharingTM service. Since transition, 770 libraries in 16 countries have used the service to upload some 200,000 files. There also is an Article Exchange Web service in production on the OCLC Developers Network. More…
Kindred Works—a demonstration interface built upon an experimental content-based recommender service. Various characteristics associated with a sample resource, such as classification numbers, subject headings, and genre terms, are matched to WorldCat to provide a list of recommendations.
Metadata Crosswalk Web Service—The goal of the Metadata Schema Transformation project is to develop data models and software tools that ease the task of translating between metadata standards. The OCLC Crosswalk Web Service Demo calls an instance of the Crosswalk Web Service and translates to and from Dublin Core, MARC-XML, MARC-2709, and MODS. Users download a thin client with the web service API to easily create a software module that can be incorporated into their own applications.
searchFAST—This new interface to the FAST prototype simplifies the process of heading selection, in an easy-to-use one-page design.
News
- Lorcan Dempsey's "Managing Our Online Profersonal Lives" Presentation Stresses Importance of Managing Your Online Identity
- The presentation includes random notes and interesting quotes that illustrate not only how researchers are using social media but also how measurements of their social web impact relates to their personal brand and altmetrics. More...
- Connaway Elected to ASIS&T Board of Directors
- Lynn Silipigni Connaway's three-year term will begin after the American Society for Information Science and Technology's October meeting. More...
- OCLC Research Welcomes Takashi Shimada and Simone Kortekaas
- OCLC Research is pleased to welcome two colleagues who will spend time with us over the next four weeks. More...
- OCLC Researcher appointed to NISO Committee
- OCLC Research Consulting Project Manager Eric Childress has accepted an invitation to join the NISO Content and Collection Management Committee. NISO (National Information Standards Organization) identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes technical standards related to managing information in the digital environment. The committee is one of three main leadership groups that help oversee existing and new standards work for NISO. More...
- OCLC Research Submits Proposal to SXSW 2013
- The South by Southwest 2013 (SXSW 2013) Conferences & Festivals, which take place 8-17 March 2013 in Austin, Texas, are a premiere destination for discovery offering the unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies in order to foster creative and professional growth. The SXWS proposal selection process is competitive and includes online community voting. Although the voting process closed 31 August, we invite you to review the OCLC Research video proposal and look for it when the final SXSW 2012 Interactive program is announced. More...
- OCLC Research and Europeana Collaboration Announcement
- OCLC and Europeana are collaborating to investigate ways of creating semantic links between the millions of digital objects that are accessible online through Europeana.eu in order to improve "similar object" browsing. More...
- A complete list of OCLC Research news items is available online at: http://www.oclc.org/research/news.html.
Events, Webcasts and Presentations
- Preservation Health Check Workshop at iPRES2012
- This workshop explored the use of real life preservation metadata for risk assessment, introduced and discussed the concept behind the preservation health check pilot, proposed an approach for mapping preservation metadata schemas with preservation risk assessment frameworks, and walked through a number of examples. More...
- OCLC Research TAI CHI Webinar Series Presents Umlaut
- In this webinar, Jonathan Rochkind, Senior Programmer/Analyst at the Sheridan Libraries at Johns Hopkins University, demonstrated how Umlaut allows you to de-couple your "link resolver" user-facing UI from your underlying knowledge base products. #orumlaut More...
- Wikipedia and Libraries: What's the Connection?
- In this webinar, OCLC Research Wikipedian in Residence Max Klein discussed what's happened between Wikipedia and libraries in the past and what it means for the future. More...
- Videos from Libraries Rebound Meeting Now Available
- Videos of all Libraries Rebound presentations and discussions are now available on YouTube and on the OCLC Research website. There are 17 videos total. More...
- Wikipedia Loves Libraries Event, 11 July in Washington, D.C.
- OCLC Research Wikipedian in Residence Max Klein organized this event to continue to build momentum for the Wikipedia Loves Libraries initiative, a continent-wide campaign to bring Wikipedia and libraries together with on-site events. More...
- OCLC Research at GLAM Night Out at the Newseum
- All staff from libraries, archives and museums were welcome to attend this free networking reception and media panel at the Newseum. Jump to the announcement of this past event for links to more information about the GLAM-Wiki US Consortium and the Newseum, Washington, D.C.’s most interactive museum. More...
- New Video: "Wikipedia Structure in Paper"
- In this video, OCLC Research Wikipedian in Residence Max Klein uses paper to explain the structure of Wikipedia. More...
- A complete list of OCLC Research events is available online at: http://www.oclc.org/research/events.html.
OCLC Researcher Spotlight—Ricky Erway and Born-digital Content

I was born analog and started my career as a high school librarian in the heart of the Rocky Mountains. When I returned to the University of Wisconsin, the library school was just beginning to offer classes on mediated searching, database management, and a “telecommunications” class that featured videotex, interactive television, and optical discs. My first post as a newly minted MLS grad was at the Library of Congress, where I was involved in the final years of the Optical Disk Pilot Program. That evolved into the American Memory program, of which I was associate coordinator for five years. Both programs sought to use new technology to make the Library’s collections more accessible.
When RLG was looking for someone with digitization experience, I jumped at the chance. I was involved in several collaborative digitization and access programs and when RLG and OCLC merged, the opportunities to work with institutions on shared challenges multiplied. At OCLC, my research emphases includes digitization, finding ways for academic librarians to increase their support for the research process, and helping archivists manage born-digital content. The last two topics meld nicely with digitization, since in all cases, the output is a lot of bits that need to be managed responsibly and made accessible.
Recently, I’ve been focusing on providing simple guidance for those just getting started with managing born-digital materials. The report You've Got to Walk Before You Can Run: First Steps for Managing Born-Digital Content Received on Physical Media, which was published in August, provides the most basic steps for assessing the nature and extent of born-digital materials in an archives’ collections and the actions required to begin to get them under control. September’s Swatting the Long Tail of Digital Media: A Call for Collaboration addresses the variety of types of physical media an archives might acquire and the futility of a single archives trying to gear up to be able to read and transfer all those formats. Swatting the Long Tail has generated interest in a pilot to test the willingness of institutions to work with service providers in transferring data from obsolete media. We plan to work with staff from pilot archives and pilot service providers to iron out the kind of agreement that is needed, spell out the processes and deliverables, and test it out in a real world situation. We'll likely share these procedures and outcomes in a report, as well.
Activities
A complete list of OCLC Research activities is available online at: http://www.oclc.org/research/activities/.