Abstract: Print book collections are facing significant transformation in response to mass digitization, remote storage, and preservation. These issues should be considered within a system-wide context in which individual print book collections are viewed not as isolated units, but rather as parts of a larger whole. As libraries look beyond the boundaries of their local print book collections to consider system-wide implications, they will need to be equipped with data and analysis about the system-wide print book collection. This paper provides a brief overview of the system-wide print book collection, defined as the combined print book holdings of libraries everywhere, as reflected in the WorldCat bibliographic database. Issues addressed include the size of the collection; holdings patterns; distribution by publication date and language; and the relationship of the system-wide print book collection to overall book production. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of some implications of the analysis, and possible directions for future research.
PS: This article is more relevant to OA than the abstract might suggest. Here are three bits, with my comments in parentheses and italics.
It's hard to count how many distinct books have ever been published but "the closest approximation" is WorldCat which, with a little refining, identifies 24 million. (Google's initial goal to digitize 15 million books, assuming no duplicates, puts it over the halfway mark.)
9.5 million books are only held by one library each. (Incredible. Digitization and OA would be like discovering a lost civilization.)
Only 2.4 million books are held by more than 50 libraries each and only 301,000 are held by more than 500 libraries each. (Books are long-tail, both in distribution and demand. We need digitization and OA to overcome the limitations of even the largest print collections.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/26/2006 05:37:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
