Collection Analysis Task Force (CAT-Force)

The Alliance’s “shared collection” definition envisions a collaborative effort to maximize the members’ available resources through coordinated, intentional approaches to local collection development and resource sharing across members. A necessary precursor to identifying, designing, and implementing these approaches is a baseline understanding of the current attributes of the Alliance shared collection. Reaching this understanding requires analysis within, and across, members’ shareable collections.

As a starting point for an ongoing and evolving Alliance-wide collection analysis effort, the Collection Analysis Taskforce (CAT-Force) was tasked with defining and conducting a pilot project that focused on the collection of “last copy” monographs held across the Alliance. The group conducted this work from October 2025 through June of 2026, and the results of the project are available below.

CAT-Force Charge Document

Project Deliverables

  • CAT-Force Final Report
  • CAT-Force Data Sets
    • Last copy counts based on initial Alma Analytics reports (Google Sheets, 3KB – 12/4/2025 data)
      • Gives institution-level count of last copies and percentage of all Alliance last copies
    • General breakdowns by LC class, publication date, and language (Google Sheets, 68 KB – 12/17/2025 data)
      • Contains statistical breakdown of Alliance last copies. Within each category (LC class, publication date, and language), titles are separated by geographic area, institution, institution type, place of publication, WorldCat holdings in various regions, and overlap with major shared print programs.
    • Breakdown by Summit and ILL usage (Google Sheets, 54 KB – 11/24/2025 Summit data, 11/30/2025 ILL data)
      • Provides detailed analysis of last copy titles based on their Summit and ILL usage levels. Breakdowns by LC Class, publication date, and language for each institution are given.
      • Note that ILL results are partial, due to ILL provider changes and other local circumstances which prevented the retrieval of data for the full period of interest.
    • All Summit-loaned last copies (Google Sheets, 10.7 MB – 11/24/2025 Summit data, 12/17/2025 bib data)
      • Provides bibliographic data for all of the last copy titles that were circulated in Summit between 7/1/2020 and 11/24/2025.
    • All ILL-requested last copies (Google Sheets, 2.4 MB – 11/30/2025 ILL data, 12/17/2025 bib data)
      • Provides bibliographic data for all of the last copy titles that were requested via ILL between 7/1/2020 and 11/30/2025.
      • Note that ILL results are partial, due to ILL provider changes and other local circumstances which prevented the retrieval of data for the full period of interest.
    • Institution-specific last copy lists (Google Shared Drive folder – 12/17/2025 data)
      • The files in this space are zipped Excel spreadsheets.
      • Access is restricted to members of the Alliance’s Shared Content and Technical Services community. Others are welcome to submit an access request for the data.
      • These lists can be used by members to retrieve and analyze their last copy titles’ usage and other inventory-level information using Alma Analytics and the CAT-Force’s documentation: How to use institution-specific files to retrieve item-level data from Alma (Google Docs, 276 KB)
    • Last copies held by multiple members (Google Sheets, 10 MB – 12/17/2025 data)
      • Contains bibliographic data for titles reported by Alma as last copies, but reported by WorldCat as being held by multiple Alliance members.
      • These titles may indicate the need for local review and cleanup of WorldCat holdings.
    • Last copies held by no members (Google Sheets, 9.7 MB – 12/17/2025 data)
      • Contains bibliographic data for titles reported by Alma as last copies, but reported by WorldCat as being held by no Alliance members.
      • These titles are likely indicative of local workflows that include long-term record retention for deselected items, which is common due to state regulations.