Rethinking Library Resources: Print Books
in a Digital Age
Texas Council of Academic Libraries
October 3, 2013
SCS Background
• Founded in February 2011
• Principals
– Chief Analytics Officer [Andy Breeding]
– Chief Technical Officer [Eric Redman]
– Chief Operations Officer [Ruth Fischer]
– Chief Executive Officer [Rick Lugg]
– OCLC [Strategic Partner]
• 70+ projects to date
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SCS Mission
To help libraries manage and share print
monographs
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Deselection: Defined Broadly
• ‘Deselection' can encompass a number of
different goals:
• Transfer to offsite storage, automated storage &
retrieval systems (ASRS) or compact shelving
• Shared Print Archiving
• Retention and Preservation
• Digitization
• Weeding or Withdrawal
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Today’s Specials
• The Why: The Changing Value of Local Print
Collections
• The How: Collecting and Using Deselection
Metadata
• Shared Print Monographs
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THE WHY: THE CHANGING VALUE
OF LOCAL PRINT COLLECTIONS
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Evolution of the Library
Paradigm
Reader-centered: from monastic scriptorium and library;
dominated by light and reading tables
Book-centered: collection growth;
unrelenting need for more shelving
Learning-centered: digital content; information commons;
learning spaces; information literacy
Source: Scott Bennett, Libraries and Learning:
A History of Paradigm Change (2003)
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The Problem
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Stacks are overcrowded
Use of print books is low and declining
Library space is wanted for other purposes
Print redundancy is significant
The cost of keeping books on shelves is high
Alternatives exist, but data is scattered
Traditional approaches to deselection are costly
and time-consuming
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Stacks are crowded and empty
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Circulation in Academic Libraries:
Declining Since 2004
37%
Decline
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Print Use Dwarfed by Electronic Use
-23%
+76%
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Space Requirements: Monographs
Volumes
100,000
250,000
500,000
1,000,000
2,700,000
Square Feet
20,000
45,000
80,000
150,000
405,000
Source: Stephen R. Lawrence, Lynn Silipigni
Connaway, and Keith H. Brigham, “Life Cycle
Costs of Library Collections” College &
Research Libraries, November 2001, p. 546.
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Library space is wanted
for other purposes…
“The crowding out of readers
by reading materials is one
of the most common and
disturbing ironies in library
space planning.”
--Scott Bennett
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Lifecycle Costs: Monographs
• CLIR, June 2010
• Courant & Nielsen
• Estimated Annual Costs
 $4.26/ volume annually in
central stacks
 $0.86/volume in highdensity facility
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Lifecycle Costs: Monographs
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Print redundancy is significant…
Potential for shared print
And local reductions
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The Case of Bertrand Russell…
Alternatives exist, but the data is scattered…
Just because it’s rational doesn’t mean it’s
easy…
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Premises for Action
• Users value other library services more than
print collections
• Opportunity for deselection with no impact on
users and no risk to the record
• New tools and approaches will be necessary to
make it safe & economical
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WHAT TO DO?
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How else could we…?
• Preserve collection integrity
• Assure low-use content is available if/when
needed
AND
• Bear less unnecessary cost
• Free more space for users and other purposes
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Shared Collections?
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Store offsite?
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Discard?
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Create?
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Regret?
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Benefit?
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Independent action in a collective context
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Shared print initiatives (Monographs)
• Michigan Shared Print Initiative (MI-SPI)
• Maine Shared Collection Strategy (IMLSfunded; Statewide scope)
• Connect New York Shared Print Archiving
• Central Iowa Collaborative Collections Initiative
• Washington Research Library Consortium
• Virtual Library of Virginia
• FLARE (Florida), GWLA, SCELC
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THE HOW: USING DATA TO INFORM
MONOGRAPHS DESELECTION
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Two functions of library print collections
• Preservation function
• “Dispensing” function: accounts for the “the
great preponderance of operating costs.
Source: Michael Buckland, Redesigning Library
Services: A Manifesto (Chicago: American Library
Association, 1992).
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Many monographs are digitally archived
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To a high standard…
• TRAC: Trustworthy
Repositories Audit &
Certification
• Site visit, sampling of archives
content, review of
documentation
• “preservation audit”
– Organizational Infrastructure
– Digital Object Management
– Technologies, Technical
Infrastructure, Security
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But we still need a print archive…
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‘Archive’ copies
• Digital Archives
• Secure, high-quality
• Hathi Trust, Portico
• CRL certification
• Print Archives
• Failsafe for technological or natural disaster
• New digital surrogates or re-digitization
• Dark, dim, or light?
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‘Service’ copies
• Once content is securely archived, ‘dispensing’
function can be managed with fewer surplus
copies
• Focus on distribution, convenience, speed of
delivery
• Borrow or re-purchase; print, electronic
(including PDA, DDA, Short-term Loan); POD
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Surplus copies
• Archiving requirements satisfied
• Sufficient service copies to meet anticipated
demand
• How many holdings/copies remain?
• Are all of them needed?
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Good Decisions Require Data
• How many holdings/copies?
• Where are they?
• Is the title secure?
• Can the title be accessed quickly?
• Can the title be re-obtained if needed?
• What options are available for each title?
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SCS and Collection Analytics
• Assembles deselection metadata
• Supports library-defined rules that operate
against that metadata
• Coordinates withdrawal and retention scenarios
across all institutions (in a group setting)
• Incorporates ‘archival’ values and ‘service’ values
into deselection decisions
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The SCS Approach: Data-Driven Decisions
• Circulation & other use data
(ILL, in-house)
• Holdings in other libraries (peer,
regional, national)
• Secure digital copy (Hathi)
• Authoritative title lists
• [Commercial availability]
• Library-defined rules
• Interactive rule sets
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Deselection Metadata
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SCS Monographs Index 2013
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The Average SCS Monographs Collection
• Of the 459,000 circulating print books:
• 182,039 have no recorded uses in the past 15 years
• 342,551 have been used 3 or fewer times in the past 15 years
• 356,377 are held by more than 100 other libraries in the US
• 9,639 are held by fewer than 5 other libraries in the US
• 221,192 are securely digitized in Hathi Trust
• 22,216 of those Hathi Trust titles are freely available in
electronic form
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Trinity’s Data
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Collaborative Analysis
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Collective Decisions Based on Data
2,000,000
1,800,000
0 Circs
491,866
1,600,000
1-3 Circs
1,400,000
4+ Circs
1,200,000
725,379
1,000,000
800,000
600,000
145,121
331,091
108,695
400,000
200,000
214,067
645,194
442,308
240,846
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1
2
3-12
SHARED PRINT MANAGEMENT:
GROUP PROJECTS
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SCS Group Projects to Date
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•
•
•
Michigan Shared Print Initiative (MI-SPI)
Maine Shared Collection Strategy
Connect New York Shared Print Archiving
California State University System
Central Iowa Collaborative Collections Initiative
Tri-University Group (Canada)
Washington Research Library Consortium
Virtual Library of Virginia
Academic Libraries of Indiana
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Project Segments
• Planning & requirements gathering
• Getting usable catalog extracts
• Data preparation and review
• Group collection summary
• Scenario development
• Iterations
• Candidate lists
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Task
Description
Dates
High-level
project schedule/dependenies
Planning Meetings
Key players discuss data extracts, anomalies, peers, etc.
You Are Here
Sept
2013
Comparators, local interest rules, scoping refinements
Sept-Oct
2013
Data Preparation
Libraries prepare and deliver extracts to SCS. SCS validates,
normalizes, matches, and performs holdings lookups.
Sept-Dec
2013?
Group Collection
Summary
Categorical overview of the group data set. Used to gauge
opportunities and guide scenario development.
Early
2014?
Collections Decisions
Scenario
Development
Project leaders suggest preliminary assessment criteria. SCS iterates
and revises scenarios.
Jan-April
2014
Candidate Lists
Detailed Excel spreadsheets for review, bases on finalized criteria for
retention and withdrawal. Modify as necessary.
April-June
2014
Discussions
Facilitation
This will be needed at many points – but especially around scenario
development, allocation, and policy development.
Throughout
Allocation
Assignment of withdrawal opportunities and retention commitments
– based on many factors.
TBD
List Production
Once allocation decisions have been made, SCS will derive title/item
lists for use by individual libraries.
TBD
Ongoing Data
SCS will maintain (but will not update) the VIVA dataset for 2 years,
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Management
which can be used for additional51projects.
…
Collections and Analytical Strategies
• Ensure a shared understanding of the scope of
the project
• Most productive focus: circulating print
monographs
• Which libraries, which branches?
• What comparisons will the group’s data
support?
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VIVA Data Extracts: 10 Sources, 12 Libraries
Institution
ILS
OCLC Symbol
Estimated Records*
George Mason
Notes
Voyager
VGM
[750,000]
Old Dominion
III Sierra
VOD
713,995
University of Virginia
SirsiDynix
Symphony
VA@
Virginia Commonwealth
Alma
VRC
884,649
Virginia Tech
Millennium
VPI
660,000
James Madison
Millennium
VMC
[460,443]
Radford
Millennium
VRA
233,809
Germanna CC
Aleph
PZJ
31,730
CC Libraries share a system,
so the three pilot libraries
count as a single data extract
J. Sargeant Reynolds CC
Aleph
PZL
66,062
See above
Mountain Empire CC
Aleph
PZP
37,205
See above
University of Richmond
Voyager
VRU
382,228
Washington & Lee
Millennium
VLW
405,409
Also in WRLC. Re-use
extract for VIVA.
1,240,421
Est. Total Records to be
Processed**
5,800,000
Est. Total Records to be paid
In Pilot***
4,600,000
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Extract already paid
via JMU-specific project
How to deal with uneven depths of data?
Library
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Total Charges
Earliest Last Charge Date
Library 1
20 years
6/29/1993
Library 2
11 years
6/26/2002
Library 3
7 years
1/20/2005
Library 4
23 years
7/23/1990
Library 5
15 years
9/22/1998
Extensive item data will be collected
• item call number
• location code*
• volume
• item type code*
• last reserve date
• note field*
• copy #
• opac message*
• in-house uses
• item status code*
• barcode
• total checkouts
• last check-in date
• item record number
• last check-out date
• item create date
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Comparator library groups
Library
UNI
UI
ISU
University of Northern Iowa
NIU
University of Iowa
NUI
Iowa State University
IWA
Ashford University
Loras College
Briar Cliff University
Luther College
Buena Vista University
Maharishi University of Management
Clarke University
Mercy College of Health Sciences
Coe College
Morningside College
Cornell College
Mount Mercy College
Des Moines University
Northwestern College
Divine Word College
Palmer College of Chiropractic
Dordt College
St. Ambrose University
Graceland College
University of Dubuque
Iowa Wesleyan
Upper Iowa University
Waldorf College
Wartburg College
Wartburg Theological Seminary
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William Penn University
Other IPAL
IO9
IOB
IOE
IOC
ION
IMV
IWO
DIV
IOT
IOF
IOI
IOL
IOH
MIU
Y4Q
IOM
UIW
IOO
PWT
IOJ
IOV
IOY
IX5
IOW
IWT
IOX
SCS normalizes the data from each library
Bibliographic, item, circulation, and holdings data extracted, transformed,
and loaded to an SCS Postgres database
• Filter out-of scope bib records (eBooks, maps, DVDs, Gov Docs)
• Eliminate duplicate bib records
• Normalize call numbers
• Eliminate trailing spaces in control numbers
• Validate OCLC numbers
• LCCN/title-string lookups for records lacking an OCLC number
• Identify and accommodate unusual implementations of MARC
• Identify bibs without items and items with multiple bib records
• Map item-level data and interpret codes
• Assign LC (and/or Dewey) Classes to records
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Compare group’s holdings to other libraries
• External comparisons
– WorldCat Holdings
– Hathi Trust In-Copyright
– Hathi Trust Public Domain
– Internet Archive
– CHOICE
– CHOICE Outstanding Academic Titles
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GROUP COLLECTION SUMMARY
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By “titles” we can mean two different things
1. Title Set
Adelphi
Bard
Canisius
Cazenovia
Colgate
Hamilton
2. Title Holding
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Each Title-Holding can have different characteristics
Library
Total
Charges
Last Charge
Date
Last Item
Add Date
Adelphi
2
5/1/06
7/25/94
Bard
1
Canisius
5
Cazenovia
1
Colgate
8
9/23/02
6/23/94
Hamilton
12
4/20/11
5/28/02
Le Moyne
3
3/27/95
Medaille
0
6/26/08
Pace
2
5/13/09
11/1/94
St Lawrence
2
4/4/12
10/25/94
Union
2
9/13/10
4/5/03
Vassar
8
9/4/12
1/11/95
9/11/96
10/14/09
6/24/94
1/29/96
Publication
Year
1994
Recorded Uses
Title-Holding Counts
1
All Title Holdings - Filtered
All Libraries
%
1,048,251
100%
Recorded Use Counts
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2
Total Recorded Uses = 0
448,173
43%
3
Total Recorded Uses = 1
208,568
20%
4
Total Recorded Uses = 2
119,039
11%
5
Total Recorded Uses = 3
73,754
7%
6
Total Recorded Uses 4-9
150,156
14%
7
Total Recorded Uses > 10
48,651
5%
14
Last charge after 2010
104,933
10%
15
Last charge after 2007
211,842
20%
16
Last charge after 2005
272,626
26%
WorldCat™ Counts – US
WorldCat Counts - US - Specific Edition
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Title Holdings
%
2
Unique in the US
2,804
0%
4
2-4 Holdings in the US
7,327
1%
6
5-9 Holdings in US
10,822
1%
8
10-19 Holdings in US
19,452
2%
10
20+ Holdings In US
1,007,213
96%
12
50+ Holdings in US
953,539
91%
14
100+ Holdings in the US
875,579
84%
16
200+ Holdings in the US
728,019
69%
Overlap based on SCS Matching – for a 5 Library Group
Overlap within the 5 participating libraries
Title Holdings
%
2
Unique in group
526,526
50%
3
Title-holdings in 2 libraries
280,360
27%
4
Titles-holdings in 3 libraries
154,351
15%
5
Titles-holdings in 4 libraries
68,681
7%
6
Titles-holdings in all 5 libraries
18,333
2%
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Overlap with a Peer Group
Overlap with other IPAL libraries – specific editions
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Title Holdings
%
29
WorldCat holding set in 1 other IPAL Library
170,962
16%
30
WorldCat holding set in 2-4 other IPAL libraries
293,053
28%
32
WorldCat holding set in 5-9 other IPAL libraries
155,259
15%
34
WorldCat holding set in 10+ other IPAL libraries
33,678
3%
Title-Holdings by Publication Year
25,000
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
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Title Holdings by LC Class
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Holdings and Usage Levels Compared
Number of
Title
Holdings
Average
Uses per
Title-Holding
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Hathi Trust and Internet Archive
SCS Matches
9
69
Hathi Trust Public Domain Match
Title Holdings
%
53,595
5%
10 Hathi Trust In-Copyright Match
455,250
43%
11 Internet Archive Match
158,754
15%
12 In Internet Archive not in Hathi
60,875
6%
13 In Hathi not in Internet Archive
425,414
41%
High-level project schedule
Task
Planning Meetings
Description
Key players discuss data extracts, anomalies, peers, etc.
Tentative
Dates
October
2012
Data Preparation
Libraries prepare and deliver extracts to SCS. SCS validates,
normalizes, matches, and performs holdings lookups.
November
2012
Group Collection
Summary
Categorical overview of the group data set. Used to gauge
opportunities and guide scenario development.
January
2013
Scenario
Development
You Are Here
Project leaders suggest preliminary withdrawal and preservation
criteria. SCS iterates and revises.
Begin
February
2013
Candidate Lists
Detailed Excel spreadsheets for review, bases on finalized criteria for
withdrawal. Modify as necessary.
2013
Discussions
Facilitation
This will be needed at many points – but especially around scenario
development, allocation, and policy development.
Throughout
Allocation
Assignment of withdrawal opportunities and retention commitments
– based on many factors.
2013
Production of Picklists Once allocation decisions have been made, SCS will derive title/item
and Keeplists
lists for use by individual libraries.
2013
Ongoing Data
SCS will maintain (but will not update)
the CNY dataset for 2 years,
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Management
which can be used for additional projects.
…
CRITERIA
Original Shared Print Scenarios
TITLE-SETS
-Pub Year < 2000
with
-Pub Year < 2000
-Pub Year < 2000
TITLE
-Last Add Date < 2000
HOLDINGS -Total-Charges = 0
with
-Last Add Date < 2000
-Total-Charges = 1 or less
-Last Add Date < 2000
-Total-Charges = 3 or less
Keep 1
Title
Holding
599K withdraw
843K withdraw
1,085K withdraw
Keep 2
Title
Holdings
389K withdraw
538K withdraw
680K withdraw*
Keep 3
Title
Holdings
255K withdraw
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346K withdraw
430K withdraw
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500,000 Surplus Holdings
• 100,000 square feet
• Over 12 campuses & branches
• Still 2 title holdings available among the 12
libraries
• Highest circulating items: 1 circulation in 20+ years
• Impact on space: significant
• Impact on service: negligible
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Allocation of withdrawal candidates
• 548,314 allocable withdrawal candidates
• How many are on each library’s shelves?
• How does that match each library’s
withdrawal target?
• How do we divide them equitably?
• Proportionately to withdrawal candidates?
• Proportionately to collection size?
• How do we reconcile disparities?
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Allocation of withdrawal candidates
• 548,314 allocable withdrawal candidates
• How many are on each library’s shelves?
• How does that match each library’s
withdrawal target?
• How do we divide them equitably?
• Proportionately to withdrawal candidates?
• Proportionately to collection size?
• How do we reconcile disparities?
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CLOSING THOUGHTS
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Strong preferences: print, self-sufficiency
Hathi Trust or
other digital
surrogate
Print in
Collective
Collection
Print in state
Print within
group
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There are other solutions…
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Amazing Desk Made From Recycled Books at Delft University
by Bridgette Meinhold, 09/13/10
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Q & A / DISCUSSION
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Contact details
• sustainablecollections.com
• Email
– rick@sustainablecollections.com
– ruth@sustainablecollections.com
• Blogs
– SCSInsight Blog
http://sustainablecollections.com/weed-feed/
– Rick’s Blog – Google ‘rick lugg blog’ or go to
http://sampleandhold-r2.blogspot.com/
• Twitter: @SCSinsight; @ricklugg
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