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Emilie Hardman Houghton Library, Harvard University Susan Pyzynski

On Aesthetics, Zacatecas and Everything In-between: Utilizing Subject Headings from Special Collections Circulation Data to Assess and Inform . Emilie Hardman Houghton Library, Harvard University Susan Pyzynski Houghton Library, Harvard University. HOUGHTON LIBRARY.

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Emilie Hardman Houghton Library, Harvard University Susan Pyzynski

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  1. On Aesthetics, Zacatecas and Everything In-between: Utilizing Subject Headings from Special Collections Circulation Data to Assess and Inform Emilie Hardman Houghton Library, Harvard University Susan Pyzynski Houghton Library, Harvard University

  2. HOUGHTON LIBRARY • Houghton Library is Harvard University’s principal special collections library • 600,000 books • 10 million manuscripts • Millions of prints, photographs, ephemera • Collection strengths in American, English, and Continental history • Reading Room Statistics (FY 2011-2012) • 2,077 individual registered users • 6,037 visits • Strong Seminar Program (FY 2012-2013) • 229 seminars hosted

  3. IMPLEMENTATION OF AEON • September 2010 Houghton implemented Atlas System’s archives/special collections circulation system • Allowed for collection and analysis of standardized data at a scale and with ease not previously available to us • Almost three years worth of data • Selected a piece to begin exploring • What could the now easily-examined subject headings of our circulated materials tell us about collection usage and the research interests of our patrons? • What could we do to respond to what we might learn?

  4. PREVIOUS EFFORTS Houghton Library Reading Room during a “bone feast” (holiday party), 1980s. Houghton Bridge may be seen in back right corner.

  5. PURSUING POSSIBILITIES • Data, not anecdotes! • Increased understanding • Predictive powers? • Illumination of collection strengths • Inform practices? Policies? More?

  6. COLLECTION SURVEYS • Significant collection surveys in special collections • Manuscript Survey Project (Bancroft, Berkeley) • Mellon Special Collections Materials Survey (Columbia) • Unprocessed Collections Survey Project (U. Michigan) • MASC Surveys and the Collection Survey of 2013 (Harvard) • Offer perspectives on the collections, but not necessarily their usage

  7. OUR GOALS An agile, exploratory project • Less effort and planning required • See where the data take us Utilizing work we have already done • Cataloging • Data already collected and maintained Focused on use • Highlights subject headings as significant and illustrative of patron interests

  8. SUBJECT HEADINGS • Number of projects through the 1980s in circulating collections • Used to weed • Used to identify areas for collection development • Recent OSLC OhioLINK Collection and Circulation Analysis • Provides a broad picture of collections, could perhaps offer insights into subject usage by patrons • Critiques of bias and application we must be aware of • Headings may have cultural biases • Headings may be incompletely applied

  9. OUR APPROACH • Ran report in Aeon to collect all patron requests from September 2010-December 2012 • Cleaned data (missing and incorrectly entered) • Left with 21,017 unique bibliographic records • Ran against Cognos in increments of 1,000 • Exported to Excel and cleaned again • Resulted in 46,067 subject headings • Developed codebook • 35 master categories with definitions, sample LCSH headings and parameters for application • Coding all subject headings

  10. SOME DISCOVERIES • Subject access seems to be significant to circulation • Our circulated sample: 14, 447 bibliographic records with subject headings and 6,540 without • approximately 70% with headings • Our collection broadly: 244,260 records out of 473,086 without subject access • approximately 50% • Items cataloged within the past 10 years are much more likely to provide subject access • Prevalent subjects of circulated materials confirm both anecdotal evidence and offer surprises

  11. FUTURE PROSPECTS Many interesting and potentially useful applications • Better understand patron needs in various academic areas • Better serve our seminar program • Better serve remote users • Inform collecting policies • Inform cataloging and accessioning practices • Inform digitization and delivery

  12. Concluding Thoughts Still very exploratory, but some key considerations have emerged from the work already. • How might we use a project like this to foster a culture of agile assessment? • Archives and Special Collections may have a different angle on using subject analysis to develop their collections. • Adding subject headings at the point of accession is an opportunity to provide greater access and encourage circulation. • Investment of cataloger time and effort in applying robust subject access seems to be a verifiably valuable service.

  13. THANK YOU Emilie Hardman ehardman@fas.harvard.edu Susan Pyzynski pyzynski@fas.harvard.edu

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