The Maine Shared Collections Cooperative and OCLC's Sustainable Collection Services have expanded their work on a shared print monographs retention project to analyse the group's collections and ensure that copies of important print works are identified, retained and shared among group members.
The Maine Shared Collections Cooperative (MSCC) worked with Sustainable Collection Services to implement a shared approach to the management of print collections in the state in 2013. That four-year project, funded in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, covered legacy print monograph titles that were published or acquired before 2003.
The new project has been expanded to include analysis of holdings from 20 additional libraries. The 28 institutions participating include both academic and public libraries, which is unusual for a shared-print project, and will focus on titles published or acquired between 2003 and 2012. The new MSCC project is primarily self-funded by the participating libraries, but generous support from the Maine State Library has allowed smaller public libraries to participate this time around. The new project is expanding to build on the success of the 2013 project with Sustainable Collection Services.
Sustainable Collection Services (SCS) provides tools and services to help manage, share, archive or remove monographs to ensure there are sufficient copies for future use. Among the tools used by SCS is GreenGlass, a web application that allows single libraries and library groups to explore and visualise their collections in the context of collective collections. This analysis supports informed collection management decisions.
The MSCC project focuses first on shared retention scenarios, based on the bibliographic, circulation, and item data provided by MSCC. Retention models will be defined at the group level, and treatment of those titles will be decided collaboratively. Once retention commitments have been identified, individual libraries will be able to act independently and according to local needs on other holdings, transferring or withdrawing as needed.
MSCC was one of the first groups to work with Sustainable Collection Services on a shared print monographs retention project and has registered its retention commitments in WorldCat, a comprehensive database of information about library collections. MSCC registered 1.4 million commitments for retention following the 2013 project, which is nearly 1 monograph for every resident of Maine.
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