Apologies for cross-posting.

Please join the Creative Ideas in Technical Services Interest Group on Thursday March 5, 2026 from 11am-12pm Central time.  We will have three presentations followed by a Q&A. This event is free and available to all.

Registration and the complete CORE Week 2026 schedule is available here: https://www.ala.org/core/test-interest-group-week#sked


1. Teamwork Can Still Make the Dream Work: Reconsidering Legacy Classification in the Academic Library's Juvenile Collection
Presented by:  Kelsey Robertson and Summer Upton from the University of Alabama Birmingham
This proposed presentation will explore the challenges of a legacy classification scheme and the rationale for potential change in an academic library's juvenile collection. Drawing on the point of views of a metadata librarian and education librarian, the presenters will discuss how considering a change in classification and organization impacts users, poses obstacles, and requires interdepartmental collaboration. The presenters will explain the challenges with the Cutter Sanborn Three-Figure Author Table, including issues regarding shelving inconsistencies and applying the scheme in combination with Dewey Decimal for nonfiction items.  Ideas for new classification schemes and organization will also be addressed, such as restructuring materials into more definable categories. The presenters will also detail the impetus for change, such as the need to better reflect the intent of the collection, and the importance of cross-departmental collaboration when considering a classification overhaul. Finally, the presenters will also discuss potential obstacles associated with implementing classification change, including workload pressures and staffing issues.


2. Demonstrating Budgetary Impact: ROI Reports for Open Access Agreements
Presented by:  Mark Robison from the University of Notre Dame
"In recent years, the University of Notre Dame's Hesburgh Libraries has rapidly expanded its offering of Read & Publish agreements. Now the majority of the library's journal subscriptions are attached to these agreements. Campus faculty whose articles are accepted by those respective publishers can now publish Open Access, free of charge. With this shift have come new costs. How can the library evaluate the impact of these new Read & Publish agreements and determine whether the increased costs are worth it?
For the past two years, the library has created Return on Investment (ROI) reports, detailing the impact of each Read & Publish agreement for the previous year. How many papers did campus researchers publish with each publisher, and what was the value of those diverted publishing costs? What was the cost of upgrading to a Read & Publish agreement, and how much value is the library adding to the university with these types of agreements?
This presentation will describe the library's process for creating these Open Access ROI reports and offer practical guidance for success and avoiding pitfalls. These reports are part science, part artform, and the presenters will describe their process for gathering the needed data and conveying it in a responsible and thorough way. Additionally, the presentation will describe how the library has used these reports for a number of purposes, including supporting the work of internal library colleagues, as well as communicating with campus administration in clear financial terms. At a time when academic libraries feel acute budgetary pressure, Open Access ROI reports can give libraries concrete evidence for demonstrating the impact of their collections budgets.


3. Unveiling Boston Public Library's Hidden Collections Using the WorldCat Metadata API
Presented by: Jay Colbert & Mike Williams from the Boston Public Library
Using technology enabled by the BookOps-WorldCat API wrapper (OCLC DevConnect 2024) and inspired by the functionality of MatchMarc (Code4Lib Journal, Nov. 2019), Boston Public Library has developed a tool that allows catalogers to query spreadsheets of bibliographic data against OCLC's bibliographic database using the WorldCat Metadata API 2.0. In an augural test of almost 12,000 uncataloged nineteenth century items hidden in BPL's offsite storage facility, we used brief metadata collected by inventory specialists to successfully match some 70% of these items to WorldCat bibliographic records. We will discuss the development and application of this tool, our experiences navigating OCLC documentation, and the realities of working at this scale. We will also reflect on this tool's positive outcomes on discovery for our large collection of circulating, research, and rare books, and its demonstrable utility on other use cases ranging from government document backlogs to newly purchased materials on order across BPL's many world languages. This tool provides proof of concept of how cataloging departments can upskill without downsizing through collaborating with non-catalogers who can be trained to collect data such as titles, names, dates, and standard numbers, thereby extending the ability of libraries to catalog collections too big for typical book-in-hand workflows.

Hope to see you all there!

Amy Dittman, Chair
Elizabeth Szkirpan, Vice-Chair and in-coming Chair