Who is Doing What? Organizing for Digitization

1. Who is Doing What? Organizing for Digitization Michael Book, Head of Technical Services & Ruth Vondracek, Head of Reference & Instruction Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR Who is Doing What? • The Survey • Focus: For the survey, “digitization” refers specifically to digitizing and creating access to unique, locally-owned materials, such as books, articles, photographs, and multimedia. • WHO Was Surveyed? • Surveys were sent to 129 ARL (Association of Research Libraries) and GWLA (Greater Western Library Alliance) libraries. • WHY? The Questions We Wanted to Answer: • How are academic libraries organizing themselves in order to engage in the selection and digitization of local collections? Are libraries creating new positions or units, setting up cross-functional collaboration among existing departments, or using a combination of these strategies? In addition we sought to identify the academic library positions responsible for performing specific digitization functions, the extent to which traditional library expertise has been transferred to digital library responsibilities, and which units or individuals have taken on new responsibilities pertaining to digitization activities. We also wanted to see if the size of the library or the length of time a library had been engaged with digitization influenced the way libraries organized. • HOW? Methodology • Defined purpose of survey • Identified an appropriate set of libraries to survey. ARL (Association of Research Libraries) and GWLA (Greater Western Library Alliance) libraries were chosen because they were easily definable and many of the libraries were engaged in digitization. Using these libraries would also allow us to make comparisons with earlier surveys conducted within these groups. • Developed survey questions. Survey included a total of 58 questions, Most allowed multiple responses. • Applied for and received OSU Institutional Review Board approval. • Asked individuals to test the survey to gauge adequacy of questions and time required to complete the survey. (Estimated 10 minutes to complete) • Survey link was sent via email on December 6, 2004 to 129 ARL (Association of Research Libraries) and GWLA (Greater Western Library Alliance) libraries using the Oregon State University College of Business’ homegrown survey instrument. Contacts were identified by examining the libraries’ websites and selecting the person most likely to be responsible for managing digitization projects. If we had selected the wrong contact, we requested that the email be forwarded to the correct person at the institution. Response date requested of January 17, 2005. • Follow-up emails were sent out the first week of January. • Survey Instrument: Oregon State University’s College of Business BSG (Business Solutions Group) Survey System • Response Rate:31% 40 responses from 129 libraries. 2 libraries not engaged in digitization efforts. • What we would do differently? • In response choices for certain questions, we should have included a choice for ‘new unit’ or ‘new position’. As a result, that response is often lumped in with ‘other’ and required sifting through that category. • Choice of survey time. Although our response rate was adequate, it may have been improved if we had sent the survey out at a different time. As it was, the survey was conducted from December 6 to January 17, 2005, a period that straddled winter break and bumped into ALA mid-Winter, when many individuals are out of the office. • Identifying contacts was problematic; we based our choice of contacts on position titles we felt would most likely be responsible for heading digitization efforts, and relied on individuals to forward to the correct person. • Size of staff: We may have used ranges of staff numbers, such as “less than 50”, “50 –100”, rather than ask people put in exact numbers. It would have been simpler to correlate the data in this survey and in comparisons with standard sources of data. • Comments: Provide more space for contextual comments. • Next Steps: • Compare results from this survey with the information in the Digital Library Federation’s & CLIR 2002 report: The Digital Library: A Biography and GWLA’s 2003 membership survey on digital efforts. • Write and publish a report on the findings. Cross-Departmental Project Groups 84% of libraries use cross-departmental project groups. Most groups are engaged in the full range of digitization responsibilities. The level of staff assigned to particular responsibilities tends to align with traditional models. • Of those libraries engaged in digitization efforts 1-5 years responsibilities are more concentrated in Archives, Special Collections and Systems units than those libraries engaged in digitization efforts 6+ years. Who Reports to Whom? Results • 95 % or 38 out of 40 libraries reported that they were engaged in digitization efforts. • Of those 38 libraries: Years - digitization efforts Number of Libraries • 0-2 years 5 • 3-5 years 15 • 6 + years 19 • no response 1 • 19created new units to handle some aspect of digitization • 77% of libraries engaged in digitization efforts for 6+ years created a new unit. • 26% of those engaged in digitization efforts for 1-5 years created a new unit. • Size of library appears not to be a determining factor. • 29 created a new position to handle some aspect of digitization • 95% of libraries engaged in digitization efforts for 6+ yearscreated a new position. • 58% of those engaged in digitization efforts for 1-5 years created a new position. • Size of library appears not to be a determining factor.