JONATHAN CHIPP & JAMES HOWELLS, University of Southampton The University of Southampton is running a £2million project in relation to the print book collection at Hartley Library. The project addresses legacy issues with physical books, including consistent classification, logical stock sequencing, metadata optimisation, condition checks, cleaning and preservation, retention statements, and uniqueness verification. As a result of this work, some books will be retained at Hartley Library, some moved to high quality off-site storage and some material will be deaccessioned.

2. University of Southampton
Collections Development and Discovery Project
Dr Jonathan Chipp,
Associate Director, Collections Technologies and Systems
James Howells,
Senior Data Analyst
UKSG
April 2024

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YOUR QUESTIONS
Background
• Local issues at Hartley Library:
- poor sequencing
- issues with classification
- poor physical condition
• Shared issues:
- print circulation down (locally, 88% in 10 years)
- Pressure on available space
- Development of different kinds of space

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YOUR QUESTIONS
Poor sequencing Poor storage

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YOUR QUESTIONS
Poor condition Dusty books!

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YOUR QUESTIONS
What is the project?
• Reviewing the general print book collection at Hartley Library
• 500,000 books in scope
• Strategic Major Project
• Funding: £2million
• Temporary Project Team for 12 months
• Project management from the Change Portfolio Office
• Procurement of offsite store

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YOUR QUESTIONS
Timeline

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YOUR QUESTIONS
• Three Routes for all in-scope books:
- Retain the book at Hartley Library
- Relegate the book to an off-site store
- Deaccession the book
• Decisions driven by two processes:
- Data driven decision-making for all in-scope books
- User consultation for all in-scope books

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YOUR QUESTIONS
• Looking after the books:
- Cleaning
- Repairs
- Bookplates and other provenance
• Improving discoverability:
- Automated checks on metadata quality
- Reclassification where appropriate

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YOUR QUESTIONS
What are we doing?

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YOUR QUESTIONS
What are we uncovering?
History of the
Institution

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YOUR QUESTIONS
What are we doing?
History and
Provenance

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YOUR QUESTIONS
Bringing together distributed
collections
Claude
Montefiore

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YOUR QUESTIONS
What are we doing?

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YOUR QUESTIONS
Access to the print collection

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Methodology
Retain
• Pre 1953 publication date and held by 6 HEIs or fewer
• Acquired or used in last 5-10 years
• Appears on electronic reading list in last 3 years
Relegate (send offsite)
• Not acquired or used in last 5-10 years
• Is the only copy (not a duplicate)
• Used at least once or held by 6 HEIs or fewer
Deaccession
• Duplicate copy or held by 6+ HEIs

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GreenGlass
• Collections data largely sourced from GreenGlass (OCLC):
– Bibliographic data on entire UoS collection: 800,000+ items across all sites
– Library holdings data essential for scarcity checking and project methodology
– GreenGlass is only tool/dataset available to support methodology
– Query builder enables searching/filtering based on multiple criteria
• Supplemented by internal library data: reading lists, acquisition data, usage data,
LoC to University subject mapping

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GreenGlass Query Builder

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Data Source
• GreenGlass is the main data source for the analysis, however, the University of
Southampton has developed its own analytical model, using a tool called
Alteryx……

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Alteryx Model

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Data Analysis: Data Cleanse
Stage 1 – Data Cleanse
• GreenGlass data is
cleansed, filtered and
merged with University
data sources to produce
a single source file

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Data Analysis - Methodology
Stage 2 – Methodology
• The data is passed
through a series of
checks to determine
which decision category
it falls into:
– When was it
purchased/used
– Held by other HEIs
– Duplicate copies

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Data Analysis - Outputs
Stage 3 – Outputs
• The Alteryx model
produces a number of
different data outputs:
– Data by class mark
– Data by decision
category
– Complete dataset
– Condensed dataset for
Power BI (more on that
later!)

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How did we engage?
• Library staff have shared data with the majority of schools/departments (30+
meetings!)
• Completely transparent in sharing rationale, methodology, analytical model and
outputs
• Project SharePoint site includes guidance documents, “How to” videos, consultation
timelines
• Power BI dashboard with proposed decision category for each item is available to
all staff and students

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How did we engage?
• Respondents were invited to send their comments on proposals via:
Faculty Category Deaccession Reason Title Author Call Number Publication Year CommentsBarcode
FAH Legacy (Consultation Closed) The wanderings of Mumfie.
Tozer, Katherine.
JF 44154 1935 00399787
FAH Retain (Consultation Closed) Call of the valley [by] Gillian Avery; illustrated by Laszlo Acs.
Avery, Gillian, 1926-2016.
JF Ave 1966 89055181
FAH Deaccession (Consultation Closed) Held by 6+ HEIs Comparative politics : a reader / edited by Harry Eckstein and David E. Apter.
JF11 1963 63075236
FAH Retain (Consultation Closed) Comparative politics : a reader / edited by Harry Eckstein and David E. Apter.
JF11 ECK 1963 66032968
FAH Retain (Consultation Closed) Parliamentary versus presidential government / edited by Arend Lijphart.
JF11 LIJ 1992 00190455
FAH Retain (Consultation Closed) Parliamentary versus presidential government / edited by Arend Lijphart.
JF11 LIJ 1992 89119792
FAH Relegate (Consultation Closed) Herrschaftsverträge, Wahlkapitulationen, Fundamentalgesetze / hrsg. von Rudolf V
JF13 1977 719888-1001
FAH Relegate (Consultation Closed) Documentos constitucionales y textos políticos / edición preparada por Luis Sánche
JF15 SAN 1982 84115614
FAH Deaccession (Consultation Closed) Held by 6+ HEIs Federal and unified constitutions : a collection of constitutional documents for the
JF20 1923 52027529
FAH Relegate (Consultation Closed) Constitutionalism & the changing world : collected papers / by C.H. McIlwain.
McIlwain, Charles Howard, 1871-1968.
JF31 1939 63044812
FAH Retain (Consultation Closed) Constitutionalism, ancient and modern / Charles Howard McIlwain.
McIlwain, Charles Howard, 1871-1968.
JF31 MACI 1947 59714435
FAH Retain (Consultation Closed) Constitutionalism and the separation of powers, by M.J.C. Vile.
Vile, M. J. C.
JF31 VIL 1967 00082004
FAH Retain (Consultation Closed) Constitutionalism and the separation of powers, by M.J.C. Vile.
Vile, M. J. C.
JF31 VIL 1967 67030943
FAH Deaccession (Consultation Closed) Held by 6+ HEIs The framework of union. A comparison of some union constitutions. With a sketch o
Long, B. K. (Basil Kellett), 1878-1944.
JF37 1908 59278393
FAH Retain (Consultation Closed) Comparative politics today : a world view / general editors, Gabriel A. Almond, G. B
JF51 1980 81114214
FAH Retain (Consultation Closed) Comparative politics: notes and readings, edited by Roy C. Macridis and Bernard E. B
Macridis, Roy C., editor.
JF51 1968 69007622
Microsoft Form Excel spreadsheet list

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Engagement and Feedback
• All feedback is considered by a group of key Library staff
• The majority of recommendations from stakeholders were accepted
• Changes to decisions fed into operational spreadsheets and Power BI dashboard
• Operational spreadsheets handed to Metadata and Collections team to process the
500,000 items that are in scope. They are doing a great job so far!

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Any questions?

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Collections Development and Discovery Project:
For further details contact
• Jonathan Chipp jc10@soton.ac.uk
• James Howells J.M.Howells@soton.ac.uk

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Power BI – Landing Page

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Power BI – University Summary

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Power BI – Faculty Summary

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Power BI – Item Search
Filter by
subject
Item count
Filter by category (e.g. Retain ,Relegate,
Deaccession)
Search by author
Search by Call Number
Search by title keyword Search by Title
Filter by subject -
detail
List of items
meeting search
criteria