ASERL Documents Disposition Database
And Gap Analysis Tool
Judith C. Russell
Print Archiving Network (PAN) Meeting
Seattle, January 25, 2013
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Background
The Association of Southeastern Research
Libraries (ASERL) has a major initiative to
improve the management of Federal Depository
Library Program (FDLP) collections in the
Southeast (http://tinyurl.com/aala4lv)
The initiative began with and IMLS grant to
establish a model Collaborative Federal
Depository Program
• http://tinyurl.com/aw5lpjr
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Background, continued
Initial focus on improved management of print
collections to improve public access and
develop at least two distributed comprehensive
print collections in the region
Support for and participation in initiatives to
create a comprehensive digital collection in the
public domain included
• “…the best means of providing broad public access to
these collections is through online access to digital
and digitized copies”
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Background, continued
The Implementation Plan covers 12 States and
3 Territories: Alabama, Delaware, Florida,
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland,
Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Tennessee, Virginia, the District of Columbia,
Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
• 13 of the 47 Regional Depository Libraries (27.7 7%)
• 304 of the 1,201 Selective Depository Libraries (26.3%)
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Objectives
“Improved management of the tangible
collections [through] consensus on policies
and best practices for disposition of federal
documents that will simplify and streamline the
process and address collection management
throughout the Southeast Region, while
remaining in compliance with 44 U.S.C. Chapter
19, the statute governing the FDLP.”
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Centers of Excellence
Primary methodology for managing print
collections is through Centers of Excellence
(CoE)
•
•
•
•
•
Commit to permanent retention of documents from
specific agencies or on specific topics
Commit to active retrospective collecting, cataloging
and service
Digitization optional but encouraged
List of CoE: http://tinyurl.com/bbwry9g
Best Practices LibGuide: http://tinyurl.com/bkalte2
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Essential Tools
Once common disposition rules were accepted,
UF offered to develop two tools to facilitate
implementation
• The ASERL Documents Disposition Database
• The ASERL Center of Excellence (COE) Database [Gap
Analysis Tool]
Both are open source software, available for
modification and use by others
•
GPO is evaluating the Disposition Database for
national use
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Disposition Database
Launched in December 2010 to support
“Offers” (titles for discard):
• 253,735 offers with 16,581 currently active
• 8,695 individual documents and 915 documents from
multi-item sets claimed
• 7,811 offers canceled (withdrawn)
• 220,651 offers expired (after 45 days) allowing discard
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CoE Database
Began with simple tool developed by ASERL
under the IMLS grant
UF tool launched in June 2012 to support
comparison of print holdings and identify gaps
Enhanced in January 2013 to support
comparison of print holdings with available
digital copies
Detailed LibGuide available at:
• http://guides.uflib.ufl.edu/ASERL-COEDB
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CoE Database, continued
Initial Purpose to compare print holdings at
two more libraries to help Centers of
Excellence (CoE) identify items held
(cataloged) by other libraries that are NOT
included in their own cataloged holdings
• Generate lists of missing items for import into the
Needs List in the ASERL Documents Disposition
Database
• Facilitate inventory of local holdings and use of
existing cataloging records (copy cataloging)
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CoE Database, continued
New Purpose: Use print holdings at multiple
libraries to determine (to the extent possible)
what constitutes a “comprehensive” collection
of documents
• Compares cataloging records, so uncataloged
documents will not be identified
Then, compare print holdings with trusted
digital public domain copies to identify
documents that need to be digitized
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CoE Database, continued
Coming soon, if the test using records for
State Department documents is successful, a
modification to the ASERL Documents
Disposition Database to match Offers
(discards) after the 45 day review period with
Needs for print copies to be digitized
• Discarded documents that have not yet been
digitized can be collected and queued for
digitization
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CoE Database, continued
Participation in the State Department project is
not limited to libraries in the Southeast
• All interested libraries will be invited to submit cataloging data
from their FDLP collections
• ASERL and HathiTrust are drafting specifications for the data
loading for release in February
• PAN members will be notified when the specifications are
completed
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Additional Information:
– Judy Russell, University of Florida
jcrussell@ufl.edu; 352-273-2505
– John Burger, ASERL Executive Director
jburger@ASERL.org; (919) 681-2531
– Website: http://aserl.org/
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