This presentation was provided by Julia Gammon of The University of Akron Libraries and University of Akron Press, during the NISO event "Collaborative Library Resource Sharing: Standards, Developments, and New Models for Cooperating," held October 7 - October 8, 2008

1. 1
NISO Collaborative Library
Resource Sharing
October 6-7, 2008
Atlanta
Julia Gammon
University of Akron
&
Chair, OhioLINK Collection
Building Task Force
jgammon@uakron.edu
330.972.6254
How Many Copies
Do We Need?
Collaborative Collection
Development in the OhioLINK
Consortium
Why the Interest?
 Word is getting out
 Interest is high
 Technology is there
 Money & staff are tight
 Adversity breeds
innovation!
I’m the only thing between you and
lunch….
Why OhioLINK?
It was the mid-80s…
 OhioLINK was born
because:
 Too many books
 No place to put them
 No new buildings
 Not enough money

2. 2
Who belongs to OhioLINK?
 90 members
 16 public universities
 23 community/technical colleges
 50 private colleges
 State Library
What do we share?
 600,000+ Users (faculty, staff, students)
 46 million Catalog Records
 4,500 Simultaneous Users
 140 Electronic Databases
 12,000 E-journals
 25,000 E-books
 14,000 E-Theses & Dissertations
 Thousands of images, videos, and sounds
Regional Depositories
Northwest
650,000 items
stored
Northeast
550,000
items
stored
Southeast
350,000 items
storedSouthwest
1,000,000 items
stored
Ohio State
1,100,000
items
stored
Northeastern Ohio Book Depository
Circulation of Materials
 46 million items to pick from
 Patron initiated
 Requests item online
 120 pick up sites
 48 hour delivery
 4 renewals up to 15 weeks

3. 3
Materials Delivered Around State
 2007: 751,000 items
 Since 1992: 7,285,000
Who does the work ?
Here I am at yet another
OhioLINK committee meeting
and another sandwich.
The Committees
Let me introduce one of those
committees…..
Collection Building Task Force
Abridged History
 1997 Discussion began
 1998 Wrote statewide RFP
 1998 Selected vendor—YBP
 1999 Began receiving books
“Nothing great was ever
achieved without
enthusiasm (or coffee).”
---Ralph Waldo Emerson

4. 4
We meet often….
 5,560 + Meetings
 31,100 + Cups of coffee
 18,433 + Muffins
 20,800 + Lunches
 4,000,000 Frequent driver miles
 65,000 Hours of singing to the radio
 8,000 Lunch upgrades
Folks, It Ain’t Easy!
 Cooperation takes work
 New relationships need to be developed
 Not all wanted to change
 Processes & procedures can become
entrenched
 Old habits die hard
Cooperation takes more work!
 It’s easy to write an
approval plan
 Coordinated plans
take more work
 It’s easy to order a
new book
 It’s harder to find a
similar replacement
Value of making the effort…
 Better use of funds
 What could you buy if you didn’t by this
dup?
 What is *not* purchased?
 Where is duplication needed?
What was our biggest problem? Politics
 Cooperative collection management is like
a presidential year—full of politics.
 Fear of change
 Loss of autonomy
 Passive resistance, inertia and indifference
 Trust: Questioning the quality or reliability
of the partners
 In short, people are the biggest barrier.

5. 5
Advantages of Cooperating
 More diversified collections
 Economic incentives
 Know your colleagues better
 Know your collections better
OhioLINK’s Current Tools for CCD
 YBP’s Gobi
 GobiTween
 “Not Bought” Lists
 Peer reports
 Subject Groups
 Cooperative projects
 Road Shows
Tools: GobiTween in OhioLINK
 Can make an informed purchase decision
because….expected buying
 Know actual purchases
 Know potential purchases
 Can review approval plan receipts
 Know how many copies expected in the
state
Tools: Peer & Management Reports
 Compare ourselves
 Inside consortium
 Outside consortium
 Accreditation
 New programs
Tools: Gobi “Not Bought in Ohio”
 Select a time frame
 Run GOBI list
 Evaluate results
 Year end spending
 Extra funds
Tools: Subject Group Listservs
 Purpose: To facilitate
CCD & resource
sharing
 28 listservs
 Grassroots level
 Make buying decisions

6. 6
Tools: Cooperative Projects
 Religion, Art, Math,
Engineering, Computer
Science, Music etc.
 Share approval plan
profiles
 Coordinate standing
orders
 Digital rights on videos
Tools: Road Shows
 Taking the show on
the road….
 Consortial-wide
meetings
 Summit meeting
Director level
 Vendor driven
training sessions
What’s the value of working with a
consortial vendor?
 Force consortial
agenda
 Clout—get what you
want
 Big & small—favorable
discount
 Share ideas &
expertise
 New business $$$
Was it Hard to
Change Vendors?
Yes
But… Change is Good
 New excitement
about work
 New responsibilities
 New processes &
procedures
 New efficiencies
 New ways of looking
at things
 Save money
OhioLINK New Trends

7. 7
“Unnecessary-Duplication” Collection Assessment 2008
 “Selling” CCD without
data
 Need info to make
informed decisions
 Questions: What do
we want to know?
 Commercial products
 OCLC Research
Questions: Collection Analysis
Information Needed
 Is our OhioLINK collection getting more
diverse?
 Is duplication of titles increasing or
decreasing?
 What does the complete overall OhioLINK
collection look like?
 What books didn’t we purchase?
 Does the 80/20 rule apply?
OhioLINK-OCLC Research Project
 Met with OCLC Research
 Planned the information to gather
 Tested data gathering
 Wrote procedures
 Advertised, promoted & encouraged
participation
OCLC Research Project
 Project Goal
 Collect, analyze and
compare book
circulation data from all
OhioLINK libraries
 Use OCLC #, ISBN or
LCCN to link circulation
records to WorldCat bib
records
Data To Be Collected
 Dawn of Time
 One year
 Future plans?

8. 8
OCLC—OhioLINK Preliminary Data
 81 institutions participated
 33,000,000 records received
 47,000,000 circ transactions
Early Results? Ta-Dah!
Most Held
Libraries: 68
Copies: 109
Circulations: 99
Most Copies
Libraries: 12
Copies: 9,542
Circulations: 9
The National union catalog,
pre-1956 imprints
Most Circulated
Libraries: 6
Copies: 92
Circulations: 6,023
Hot Subjects
 Computer Science (QA 75-76)
 Women, Feminism, Life Skills, Life Style (HQ
1101-2044)
 Medicine: Special Subjects (R 690-920)
 Buddhism (BQ)
 Nursing (RT)
 Broadcasting (PN 1990-1992)

9. 9
Subject Distribution
0 2,000,000 4,000,000 6,000,000
Language, Linguistics, and Literature
History and Auxiliary Sciences
Business and Economics
Philosophy and Religion
Law
Sociology
Medicine
Engineering and Technology
Art and Architecture
Education
Political Science
Library Science, Generalities, and
Biological Sciences
Physical Sciences
Geography and Earth Sciences
Music
Mathematics
Psychology
Performing Arts
Agriculture
Computer Science
Physical Education and Recreation
Chemistry
Anthropology
Number of Items
Duplication by Subject
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Law
Chemistry
Psychology
Sociology
Education
Mathematics
Political Science
Physical Sciences
Performing Arts
Music
Library Science, Generalities, and Reference
Biological Sciences
Medicine
Business and Economics
Anthropology
History and Auxiliary Sciences
Geography and Earth Sciences
Philosophy and Religion
Computer Science
Art and Architecture
Physical Education and Recreation
Language, Linguistics, and Literature
Engineering and Technology
Agriculture
No. of Copies
Circulation by Subject
0 1 2 3 4
Computer Science
Psychology
Sociology
Physical Education and Recreation
Medicine
Anthropology
Mathematics
Art and Architecture
Performing Arts
Music
Chemistry
Education
Engineering and Technology
Biological Sciences
Philosophy and Religion
Physical Sciences
History and Auxiliary Sciences
Agriculture
Language, Linguistics, and Literature
Business and Economics
Political Science
Geography and Earth Sciences
Library Science, Generalities, and Reference
Law
Circulation per Item
Cooperative Collection Management
is still a journey in Ohio…
How to use data collected???
 Educate selectors
 Set guidelines for
unnecessary
duplication
 Influence purchasing
decisions
 Change behaviors
 Refine approval plans
 Weed & move
collections
Small Steps….
It only takes 2 to cooperate

10. 10
Julia Gammon
University of Akron
&
Chair, OhioLINK Collection
Building Task Force
jgammon@uakron.edu
330.972.6254