Not Scotch, but Rum: The Scope and Diffusion of the Scottish Presence in the Published Record

Big data sets and powerful computing capacity have transformed scholarly inquiry across many disciplines. While the impact of data-intensive research methodologies is perhaps most distinct in the natural and social sciences, the humanities have also benefited from these new analytical tools. While full-text data is necessary to study topics such as lexicographical patterns or the distinctive features of certain literary genres, other types of analysis can be performed using only bibliographic descriptions of a corpus of works--i.e., metadata that includes the identity of the author, publication information, subject classifications, and so on. This report uses Scotland as a case study to illustrate the concept of a national presence in the published record. The concept of a national presence is defined and operationalized in WorldCat data through a methodology that emphasizes machine processing with minimal manual intervention. The Scottish national presence in the published record is extracted from the global library resource represented in WorldCat, and characterized along a variety of dimensions. In addition, library holdings data is used to track the international diffusion and impact of the Scottish national presence. Analysis of Scotland's impact on the published record illustrates how massive aggregations of bibliographic data can be used to conduct research on cultural patterns and trends. National libraries, as well as other memory institutions, would benefit from a view of national contributions to scholarship and culture reflected in the published record, given their mission to collect, make available, and preserve their country's cultural and intellectual heritage. In addition, scholars may find the corpus of materials comprising a national presence to be a fruitful area for research.