marie-pierre détraz executive secretary bristol university, june 2002

curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Marie-Pierre Détraz

Executive Secretary

Bristol University, June 2002

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

A bit of History

• CURL founded in 1983• 7 founder members

• Cambridge• Edinburgh• Glasgow• Leeds• London (Senate House)• Manchester • Oxford

• Focus on shared bibliographic database

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

CURL - The Company • Company set up in 1992 - Charitable status • A broader mission:

‘To promote, maintain and improve library resources for research in universities’

Memorandum of Association, June 1992

• Part-time Assistant Secretary• Full-time Executive Secretary since 1997

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Membership

• 25 full membersAberdeen, Birmingham, Bristol, British Library, Cambridge, Dublin (TCD), Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London (ULL), LSE, Imperial College, KCL, UCL, Manchester, National Library of Scotland, National Library of Wales, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton, Warwick

• 1 associate member: Wellcome Library• 1 partner: School of Advanced Studies• Different rights and responsibilities (see

http://www.curl.ac.uk/members/rights.html

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

DirectorsMember institutions’ head librarians

Meet twice a year

Board8 members – elected by the Directors

Meet five times a year

• Tom Graham (Chair) Newcastle• Paul Ayris UCL• John Hall Durham• Michael Hannon (Treasurer) Sheffield• Clare Jenkins Imperial College• Ian Mowat Edinburgh• Frances Thomson Liverpool• Jan Wilkinson Leeds

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Secretariat

The University of Birmingham • Executive Secretary – Marie-Pierre Détraz

m.detraz@bham.ac.uk 0121 415 8106• Database Officer / Deputy Secretary – Mike Mertens

m.j.mertens@bham.ac.uk 0121 415 8107• Administrative Assistant - Joy West

j.a.west@bham.ac.uk 0121 415 8108

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Role of the Secretariat • Executive Secretary is responsible to the Board for:

– the executive oversight of CURL’s initiatives– all aspects of CURL’s formal company business– liaising with CURL Member Representatives and their staff– providing a coordinating and reporting mechanism for all groups

that CURL might want to establish etc. • Database Officer / Deputy Secretary is responsible for:

– Matters to do with the CURL’s record retrieval service & COPAC– Assisting in implementing CURL’s initiatives– Assisting in publicising the work of the Consortium etc.

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

RD&D and Task Forces • Resource Description & Discovery Steering Group (John

Hall, Chair)• Task Forces

• Resource Management (Jan Wilkinson, Convenor)• Scholarly Communications (Paul Ayris, Convenor)• Staffing Resources (Frances Thomson, Convenor)• Teaching and Learning (Ian Mowat, Convenor)

• To implement the Strategic Plan as defined by the Members and the Board

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Strategic Plan • To provide strong leadership and opportunities for

innovations • To provide researchers with physical and virtual access

to the shares resources of all the CURL libraries • To develop a strategic business plan for CURL’s future

directions• To consider CURL’s mission and membership in the light

of cross-sectoral and cross domain developments nationally

• For more details see http://www.curl.ac.uk/members/strategic00-04.html

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (1) – RD&DCURL Database & COPAC Developments

CURL Database for Record Retrieval

• Data loading programme for new members and members with new systems;

• Over 10 million records from the BLPC (only for members) (in all ca. 35 million records)

• Records of Bristol, NLW and NLS to be loaded when the database has been converting to MARC 21

• Possible CURL-BL joint marketing strategy

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (2) – RD&D

CURL Database & COPAC Developments COPAC for Resource Discovery (1)

• 23 CURL libraries contribute (inc. Wellcome Library and SAS)

• BLPC records available via Z39.50• Still to be loaded: KCL, Bristol, NLW, NLS• Live circulation data of half of the libraries• (http://www.copac.ac.uk)

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (3) – RD&D

CURL Database & COPAC Developments COPAC for Resource Discovery (2)

• NLW & NLS records available via COPAC V3 • COPAC V3 to be finalised in Autumn 02• MIMAS to work on the Clumps Projects• COPAC – building block for UK NUC?

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (4) – RD&D

CURL Database & COPAC Developments Archives Hub – http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk

• 7,682 records available by 8 May 02;• Ca. 20,000 by August 03• Ongoing work on distributed model• Proposal to JISC to turn it into service

SUNCAT• Possible joint bid with MIMAS?

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (5) – Resource ManagementCollaborative Collection Management Issues

(1)

Brief of the Task ForceTo look at possible collaborative ways of tackling:

• Acquisition• Retention• Preservation• Digitisation• Access

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (6) – Resource ManagementCollaborative Collection Management Issues

(2)

Why Collaborate? • No longer possible for each library to do everything• Expectations of users keep raising• Lack of space

Opportunities• Rapid developments of C&IT and e-publishing• Opportunities for a joint strategy with the national libraries

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (7) – Resource ManagementCollaborative Collection Management Issues

(3) Barriers to Collaboration

• See RSLP project: Barriers to Collaboration Among HE Libraries at http://www.rslp.ac.uk/circs/:• No deep resource sharing • Deep resource sharing: when library gives up ownership • Librarians and academics tend to be ‘risk averse’• Devolved library budgets to faculties• Competition between universities

• CURL: need to explore further

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (8) – Resource Management

Collaborative Collection Management Issues (4)

Two Main Initiatives • Pilot project to explore deep sharing (COCOREES+?)

across the 5 areas• Feasibility study to explore business models for a UK-

wide inter-lending framework in close cooperation with the BL (neither BLDSC nor CURL-SHARES are sustainable)

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (9) – Resource ManagementCEDARS (1)

CURL Exemplars in Digital Archives

• Project over period April 98 – March 02• Funded by JISC• Part of the eLib Programme• The only eLib project on digital preservation• Partners: Cambridge, Leeds and Oxford

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (10) – Resource ManagementCEDARS (2)

CURL Exemplars in Digital Archives

Disseminated Outcomes

5 CEDARS Guides:• Preservation Metadata• IPR• Collection Management• Technical Strategies• The Digital Archiving PrototypeSee http://www.leeds.ac.uk/cedars/

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (11) – Resource ManagementCEDARS (3)

CURL Exemplars in Digital Archives

Some of the Issues • Preservation decisions need to be considered at the time of acquisition;• What standards to apply? See, e.g., recommendations of the OCLC/RLG Preservation

Metadata Working Group;• What digital data need to be preserved?• Who will do what? Should legal deposit libraries bear most of the responsibility? Should some

of the responsibility lie with the publishers? What about institutional electronic records? • IPR should include the right to do what needs to be done to ensure that the data remain

intelligible (because of constantly changing technology)

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (12) – Resource ManagementCEDARS (4)

CURL Exemplars in Digital Archives

Some of CEDARS Assumptions

• Preservation to be organised on collaborative basis• All institutions will need to manage the digital objects they create• Ultimately, a relatively small number of trusted digital repositories

will undertake long-term preservation on behalf of others

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (13)

Teaching & Learning

• Project looking at students’ information seeking behaviour in CURL institutions• Consortial testing of OCLC QuestionPoint • Compilation of a CURL wish list for the content of NetLibrary

Staffing resources

• CURL conferences and events• Staff Development Focus Group

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (14) Scholarly Communications (1)

Main Issues

• Spiralling costs of journals• Need for new pricing models for ejournals• IPR: why do researchers give it away to publishers for free?• Alternative journals (SPARC & SPARC Europe)• E-print / open archives

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (15) Scholarly Communications (2)

Main Initiatives

• Advocacy Campaign Feb. – April 02• SPARC EUROPE• SHERPA• International Scholarly Communication Alliance (ISCA)

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (16) Scholarly Communications (3)

Advocacy Campaign • 14 CURL institutions took part• Events included sessions on SPARC • 526 people attended• 225 were academics; 18 university senior managers• Academics concerned with possible loss of peer review with OAIs• Senior managers particularly concerned with IPR issue

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (17) Scholarly Communications (4)

SPARC • http://www.arl.org/sparc• Director of SPARC Europe to be soon appointed (based in Oxford?)• Aim to encourage the setting-up of alternative titles to undermine

the monopoly of large journal publishers • Need for campaign to mobilise European research libraries and

academics• SPARC usually welcome, but with degree of scepticism

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (19) Scholarly Communications (6)

SHERPA

• Just under £300,000 from JISC • To create a corpus of research papers from 7 research

institutions by establishing e-print archives (OAI servers)• To comply with the Open Archives Initiative (OAI)

Metadata Harvesting Protocol • Using eprints.org software

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curl Consortium of University Research Libraries

Research Libraries of the British Isles in co-operation

Current Activities (20)

Scholarly Communications (7)

International Scholarly Communications Alliance (ISCA)

http://www.curl.ac.uk/about/latest.html

THE END