HathiTrust Collections

Are you familiar with the collection creation part of HathiTrust?  http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb

There are currently 829 collections created by users and library staff. Many are fantastic and many aren't! We primarily see collections as providing a way to collect materials on a theme or even associated with a particular physical collection/location. Once items are put into a collection, you can search the full-text of just the items in that collection. At the University of Michigan, we have a few collections that are connected to physical locations (e.g., graduate reference reading) so staff and users can search within these collections to help figure out which book has some obscure term or quote and then go pull it from the shelf.

The HathiTrust UX Advisory group has been talking about how great it would be to have even more high-quality collections to help demonstrate the usefulness of this feature. We'd also like to explore how this kind of feature could better help support library needs. 

Because large collections can be somewhat cumbersome to create manually, HathiTrust staff can actually work with you to help build them! See below for more details on this along with some sample, custom collections we've helped make.

Does anyone have ideas for collections that might be useful to them or their patrons? Feel free to forward this email to anyone who might.

Thanks!

Suzanne

Information about getting help to build custom collections:

In order for us to do this, we would need you to identify specifically which items you want in the collection by either supplying us with IDs or providing a specific set of search terms and limitations.  There are various ways this can be achieved, depending on the type of material you want in your collection. Here are some examples of collections that have been custom built: Collections built from one publication -- United States Congressional Serials Set:  http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb?a=listis;c=1597493732 Identify the title, and we will locate all the items attached to all the records from all the partners and build a collection.  Collections built from a term search in the HathiTrust catalog -- Ancestry and Genealogy: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb?a=listis;c=332123463 This collection was based on a catalog search for "genealogy" anywhere in a HathiTrust record, with only full view items wanted.  The owner has since added other items manually after the fact; the genesis of the collection was roughly 1700 items. Collections built on holdings information in a partner catalog -- UM Hatcher Graduate Reference: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb?a=listis;c=30688098 Because we link to HathiTrust items in Mirlyn, our catalog, I could use the Aleph client and retrieve all the records with a location of "Hatcher Graduate Reference Rm." and then save all the attached HathiTrust holdings to extract IDs.  The selector who wanted this collection elected to have volumes from all partners included; it would have been simple to have limited it to Michigan items only, if he had decided to do so, based on the namespace of the identifiers. Collections built from analysis using the bib API -- English Short Title Catalog: http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/mb?a=listis;c=247770968 ESTC staff provided us with identifiers based on their analysis of the bibliographic information available through the bib API. Please note that once the collection has been built, we would transfer ownership to whomever wants it so the collection can be updated and maintained.

California Digital Library Joins Public Knowledge Project as Major Development Partner in Open Access Scholarly Publishing

The California Digital Library partnership  with the Public Knowledge Project at Simon Fraser University was discussed with the University of California Council of University Librarians, and is described in detail below:

As the scholarly publishing landscape heats up with more talk of boycotts and Open Access mandates, research libraries increasingly find themselves at a crossroads between publishers and faculty -- and eagerly working to provide new solutions to entrenched problems.  The California Digital Library’s (CDL) latest foray into this space, on behalf of the University of California system, focuses on supporting open source publishing infrastructure through a major development partnership with the Public Knowledge Project (PKP).

As a result of this agreement, the CDL will assist with PKP’s ongoing development and support of its open source software suite — Open Journal Systems (OJS), Open Conference Systems (OCS), and Open Harvester System (OHS), with Open Monograph Press (OMP) due for release in the coming year.

Chuck Eckman, Dean of Library Services at Simon Fraser University stated: "The California Digital Library is widely recognized for its record of innovation and leadership in the domain of scholarly publishing and the SFU Library is thrilled at the prospects this new collaborative venture creates for advancing our shared scholarly communication goals."  Laine Farley, Executive Director of CDL, noted, “Not only are we extremely pleased with the flexibility afforded by OJS, we are also delighted to join this growing international community and contribute to the future growth of this publishing solution.”

The California Digital Library, in partnership with the University of California campus libraries, supports and encourages open access publishing initiatives within the UC system through its eScholarship publishing and institutional repository platform. eScholarship provides a suite of open access, scholarly publishing services and research tools that enable departments, research units, publishing programs, and individual scholars associated with the University of California to have direct control over the creation and dissemination of the full range of their scholarship.  Home to 45 peer-reviewed journals (http://escholarship.org/uc/search?smode=browse;browse-journal=aa), eScholarship has recently transitioned to OJS as its journal management and submission system and has integrated OJS with its pre/post-print, books and working papers repository, which contains more than 45,000 UC-affiliated publications. 

John Willinsky, Khosla Family Professor of Education at Stanford University, Library Scholar in Residence and Professor (Limited Term) in Publishing Studies at Simon Fraser University, and founding Director of PKP stated: “Given the leadership, innovation, and engagement shown by CDL in moving scholarly communication into a digital era marked by a spirit of greater openness and sharing aimed at the advancement of learning, this partnership provides a wonderful opportunity for PKP to further explore ways that faculty and librarians can work together to make more of what we do more of a public good.”

The California Digital Library provides digital library development and support for the University of California libraries and the communities they serve.  The CDL Publishing Group delivers open access digital publication services to the University of California academic community, supports widespread distribution of UC research materials, and fosters new models of scholarly publishing through the development and application of advanced technologies. (For further information contact Catherine Mitchell, director of CDL Publishing at catherine.mitchell@ucop.edu 510.587.6132.)

PKP is dedicated to improving the scholarly and public quality of research.  With more than 11,500 installations of Open Journal Systems (OJS); Open Conference Systems (OCS); and Open Harvester Systems (OHS) around the world, the Public Knowledge Project (PKP) has proven that open source software can be a game changer in scholarly publishing.

In September 2011, PKP officially launched a major sustainability campaign to ensure the continued development and enhancement of its open source software suite and to provide better support for the growing PKP user community.  To find out more about this initiative and how your site can become a PKP sponsor visit the PKP Web site at http://pkp.sfu.ca

                                              

                       

                       

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Ellen Meltzer

Information Services Manager

University of California - California Digital Library

415 20th Street

Oakland, CA 94612

510.987.9214