Analysis and news
The UK’s National Bibliographic Knowledgebase has arrived NBK has made a great start providing one place for UK academic library data, reports Sarah Bartlett
For the first time, the new National Bibliographic Knowledgebase (NBK) brings together bibliographic data from every UK academic and specialist library. Created by Jisc and project partner,
OCLC, and soft-launched in February, the NBK is a potential game-changer for librarians trying to meet today’s collection management challenges. The NBK also promises to transform resource discovery for students and researchers by providing a single point of reference for books and journals across the nation’s libraries. ‘We see the NBK as a key piece of national data infrastructure,’ says Bethan Ruddock, NBK project manager at Jisc. ‘As more libraries contribute, the NBK will, for the first time, expose the national collection by making the holdings of UK higher education and specialist libraries openly available.’ The NBK will provide a unique asset
for UK library, student and research communities – a set of services that draws on a comprehensive set of library data. Libraries are high on the list of Jisc’s higher education priorities, as Ruddock explains: ‘The library underpins much of the work within the institution. We want to make things as easy and efficient as possible for librarians, so they can concentrate on providing the personalised services we know are so valuable.’ As a longstanding provider of metadata
services, OCLC provides the capacity needed to support Jisc by aggregating data from the 225 academic and specialist libraries identified. The value of the NBK lies in its
comprehensive coverage and unified user experience. Neil Wilson, head of collection
“The value of the NBK lies in its comprehensive coverage and unified user experience”
38 Research Information April/May 2019
metadata at the British Library and an NBK stakeholder, says: ‘Users will have a single online resource, to quickly find out where in the UK a specific item is located, and which organisation can help them access it. They can survey what’s out there, and potentially identify gaps for future research. The NBK brings everything together in a more efficient process.’ For David Prosser, executive director
at RLUK, the NBK opens up huge opportunities for libraries. ‘Helping researchers and students navigate the digital environment is a key role,’ he says. ‘We see that with the growing number of university presses that are being launched or revived, with the support of the library. To help libraries make the right decisions and set the right priorities, we need large volumes of good data, and that’s what the NBK provides.’ Wilson adds: ‘Quality and consistency of metadata across the UK have been longstanding challenges. Today’s library metadata still betrays its card catalogue origins, and even automated catalogues can reflect institutionally specific practices. This creates difficulties when aggregating the data. Using OCLC to improve and standardise the metadata, should improve the consistency of the user experience. However, metadata is ultimately only part of the solution – it’s the combination of systems, metadata and services that will make the NBK a real step change.’
The NBK and the national collective collection Collection management is certainly one area where robust decisions require high-quality data. As UK academic libraries prepare for the national collective collection agenda, they need to know exactly what they hold. ‘This touches on real strategic pressures
for academic libraries, especially with regard to space,’ David Prosser says. ‘Does it make sense to have large volumes of low-use monographs in the middle of campus, or can we make alternative use of that space? We need to manage our collections as efficiently as possible, and the NBK dataset will be a key tool.’
The British Library Neil Grindley, head of resource
discovery at Jisc, agrees that this is a top- of-mind issue for many library directors. ‘They see NBK as the centre-piece of a collective retention policy,’ he says. ‘If everyone becomes comfortable about taking a national approach to managing collections, the NBK can coordinate efficiencies across the sector. This is the prize people are looking for in the UK.’ The UK Research Reserve (UKRR) comes
to an end this month (March). This 10- year project has succeeded in freeing up physical space by removing low-use print journals. In so doing, it has transformed the way UK academic libraries think about collection management, and the NBK can build on that. Many libraries have already started analysing their collections, deselecting low-use and high-volume stock, and using comparator tools to evaluate stock against peer institutions. They have identified
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