JavaScript is currently not supported or is disabled by this browser.
Some features of this site will not be available. Please enable JavaScript for full functionality.

Stewarding the Collective Collection

Exploratory Data Analysis of U.S. and Canada Shared Print Retention

Introduction

OCLC continues to build upon its foundational infrastructure investment to support the long-term management of library monographic print resources. In collaboration with The Partnership for Shared Book Collections, this project represents OCLC’s commitment to significantly contribute to developing a sustainable system for regular analysis of shared print retention holdings to support the entire library community.

Purpose and Scope

The Partnership seeks to understand the current state of print book retention commitments. The research questions guiding this project are:

Is the retention commitment data aggregated so far sufficient to inform decisions?
What is not being adequately retained (or potentially over-retained)?

To this end, OCLC has collaborated with The Partnership on an iterative exploratory data analysis project to understand the maturity of shared print services and the depth of shared print commitments. To answer the research questions, the project team needed to examine the broad landscape of retained and unretained print book collections. The investigation included identifying and analyzing current registered monograph print retentions in the US and Canada and comparing the landscape of print retentions against all monographic bibliographic holdings. Project findings will be shared in presentations and a forthcoming publication.

Outputs

Publications

Stewarding the Collective Collection: An Analysis of Print Retention Data in the US and Canada

8 November 2024

Ian Bogus, Rachel Frick, Devon Smith, Susan Stearns, and Alison Wohlers

Analyzes shared print retention data from the OCLC Shared Print Registry and OCLC WorldCat to support collective collection stewardship. This report was written in collaboration between OCLC and the Partnership for Shared Book Collections.