MASC25
Mapping Access to Special Collections in the London RegionBackground Information
Summary of Progress
London is rich in collections. The wealth of materials in the libraries of the University of London forms an important resource for researchers nationwide. This is particularly true of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. In terms of resource discovery, however, there is no adequate unified online tool which researchers can use to unlock the treasures which London can offer. There is a need for a collaborative project to produce an unified online resource guide to printed special collections in the London region. The project is closely linked to AIM25, which is currently surveying archival and manuscript material held in the libraries of the London region.
The Feasibility Study
A six-month feasibility study for the project began in June 2000, based at University College London Library and funded by the British Library Co-operation and Partnership Programme, to investigate the possibility of establishing a two-year project to create an electronic resource discovery tool for use by academic researchers world-wide. Data already exists for special collections in the London Public Libraries and the libraries of the University of London. However, vital information concerning the special collections held in the remaining M25 consortium libraries is wanting.
The data for the public libraries
of the London Boroughs is to be made available to the MASC25 project through
partnership with LASER,
whilst the information on the collections of University of London libraries
is available from the online version of Kenneth Garside's guide
to the collections, which is soon to be updated and restructured. To
establish an idea of the size and number of collections relevant to the
project in the remaining M25 institutions, a preliminary survey questionnaire
was devised and distributed.
Step One:
Establishing the project parameters
A definition
of special collections within the context of the project was established
to enable respondents to the project survey questionnaire to measure their
collections against clear guidelines.
Step Two:
Distribution of the survey questionnaire and evaluation of the responses
A total of
51 sites amongst 18 institutions were contacted to identify collections
relevant to the project held by the M25 Consortium University Libraries.
We were very lucky to receive a phenomenal 92% response rate. The data
that has been returned will enable a methodology for obtaining collection
descriptions for these collections to be devised and will assist in assessing
the staffing needs and calculating the duration of the full project. The
survey revealed 67 individual special collections containing nearly 3 million
items between them.
Step Three:
Assessment of the comprehensiveness of the existing data
The data that
is already available for the on-line resource guide, including the Garside
guide to the collections of the University of London, the descriptions
of collections in public libraries collected by LASER, and B.C. Bloomfield's
Directory of Rare Book and Special Collections, has been carefully
analysed to ensure that sufficient detail is accessible for the collection
descriptions. The analysis revealed that the Garside guide is somewhat
inconsistent and is to be updated for the full project. It will partly
be supplemented by details from Bloomfield's Directory, although
the directory itself was found to be incomprehensive. The data from LASER,
however, which was collected as part of the Needs Assessment Survey
of Heritage Materials and Collections in Public Libraries in England,
is complete.
Step Four:
Recommending techniques for collection description
A review of
existing and developing methods for creating standardised collection level
descriptions was conducted and it has been recommended that the RSLP
schema and tool for collection description are used in the full project.
Step Five:
Suggesting subject access schemes
Schemes such
as the UNESCO Thesaurus and
LCSH are currently being investigated as possibilities for providing a
controlled vocabulary that will enable researchers to access collections
that contain material on known subjects effectively and with a minimum
level of intellectual effort. As yet it remains unclear how the project
objective of cross-searching by subject across both the MASC25 and AIM25
datasets will be achieved. For this reason the project has become a stakeholder
in the recently established HILT
project, which is to study and report on the problem of cross-searching
and browsing by subject across a range of communities, services, and service
or resource types.
Step Six:
Researching software models for the web delivery of data to users
It has been
recommended that MASC25 use a web enabled database to give users online
access to the collection descriptions that will be created by the project.
Step Seven:
Completion
The detailed planning of the full
project has now been completed and a full report on the results of the
feasibility study has been submitted to the project's sponsor.
The full MASC25 project, which began upon the completion of the feasibility study, has a two-phase structure as outlined below:
MASC25: Phase I will update and restructure the collection descriptions for printed special collections held in the libraries of the University of London.
Collection descriptions will be created using data from the online Garside guide to research collections of the University of London, A Directory of rare book and special collections (ed, B.C. Bloomfield), information from the websites of the institutions involved, and where necessary, information obtained by interview with the librarians responsible for the collections. The entries to the database will be created according to RSLP standards for collection description, using a record template developed from the RSLP online tool for collection description. During this first project phase the web-enabled database that will allow users to access the MASC25 data online will also be developed. User tests will be conducted on the database to assess the effectiveness of the search options, format and structure of the web-enabled database and project website.
MASC25: Phase II will add collection descriptions for special collections held by M25 Consortium Libraries and by public libraries in the M25 Region. The collection descriptions for public library collections which have been collected by LASER will be imported to the MASC25 database and edited to meet RSLP standards. Records for the M25 Consortium libraries will be created as new from on-site audits of collections undertaken by the Project Officer.
Partnership
funding for MASC25: Phase I was secured from the Vice Chancellor's
Development Fund of the University of London. Funding for MASC25: Phase
II is being sought in the first instance from the British
Library Co-operation and Partnership Programme.
Janet Percival j.percival@ucl.ac.uk
Senior Sub-librarian,
Planning and
Resources
tel: 020 7679 7791
Library Services
fax: 020 7679 7373
University
College London
Gower Street
London
WC1E 6BT