OCLC Report: Stewarding the Collective Collection
NISO Member News
November 2024
OCLC and the Partnership for Shared Book Collections collaborated to produce a data analysis of monograph print retentions registered in OCLC WorldCat. This research examines the impact of shared print over the past decade and helps identify priorities for moving forward.
Stewarding the Collective Collection: An Analysis of Print Retention Data in the US and Canada analyzes over 100 million bibliographic records and 30 million retention commitment records in libraries across the United States and Canada to inform future collection development decision-making. Key findings reveal that the majority of titles represented in WorldCat lack retention commitments, with significant gaps in redundancy and subject area inclusivity. Additionally, millions of items face imminent expiration of their retention periods, underscoring the need for renewed commitments and improved data quality.
The analysis maps the current state of the shared print ecosystem and illuminates risks and opportunities to provide essential baseline operational information to the field. This research highlights the successes of shared print and can help libraries identify opportunities for strategic growth, improve metadata quality, and ensure the sustainability of shared print initiatives.
Key Findings From The Analysis
- The vast majority of titles held in the United States and Canada do not have any copies with retention commitments, and for those that do, very few have redundant commitments.
- Titles published between 1960 and 1990 have the greatest percentage of commitments, while more recent decades have significantly lower percentages of retention.
- Subject area analysis based on Library of Congress (LC) Classification gives some insight, but more granular exploration is needed to ensure we are retaining inclusively.
- Millions of items will reach the end of their retention period in the next five to 25 years.
- Registered retention data is incomplete and can be hard to compare.
Identifying a Pressing Risk
While variations exist across the shared print programs analyzed here, the majority include some reference to when retention commitments “expire”—typically indicating when the shared print program participant is no longer responsible for either retaining the item, making it available, or both. This creates a pressing risk: Based on the current data available, close to 100% of the current retention commitments will expire within the next 25 years unless they are renewed in the interim.