The 16 case studies that follow explore some typical activities of consortia as well as several innovative and trendsetting projects. We invited contributors to prepare case studies to represent the wide range of activities taking place in library consortia today and to point out projects that may contribute to the sustainability of consortia. We view sustainability in two ways. First, a consortium must maintain sufficient revenue to provide services, and second, each consortium must meet its members’ needs and expectations.
The 16 case studies are roughly in the order of consortial service prevalence from our survey, that is, services provided by the largest percentage of responding consortia are first. The vast majority of consortia provide training and professional development services. We asked Minitex staff to describe the organization’s efforts in online instruction, which is an aspect of training that is expanding nationwide.
A large percentage of consortia provide shared electronic content. We have included several case studies that are examples of innovative new projects for providing e-content. The Enki case study, by Linda Crowe and Heather Teysko of California, describes the use of open-source software in conjunction with proprietary systems to create a system for hosting and delivering e-books published by smaller presses and other local content. The statewide e-book pilot project, by Deborah Hoadley of the Massachusetts Library System, examines several different e-book acquisition and delivery methods to determine which platforms are the best to serve all of the state’s libraries.
Additional information on e-content projects follows with Mark Sullivan’s (IDS Project) coverage of innovations to ensure licensing compliance for document delivery of e-journal articles in New York; Ann Okerson’s (Center for Research Libraries) study on group purchasing services innovation with multiconsortial efforts of the wide deal; and Cyril Oberlander’s (SUNY Geneseo) description of SUNY libraries’ efforts to support authorship and editing of textbooks as well as open access to them.
We have not ignored the traditional services, however, as they are the bread and butter of most organizations. Interstate physical delivery holds promise to improve efficiency for many consortia, and Kathy Drozd (Minitex) describes the system used in Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Wisconsin to build on chapter 5’s coverage of physical delivery. We have included three case studies on operating shared integrated library systems, including different outcomes in the use of open-source models. Many libraries and consortia have viewed open-source as a path to the future. We must note our disappointment that some open-source projects have deviated from their community version. The controversy with LibLime, a service provider, was described in 2010 by Marshall Breeding and, as far as we know, it continues today.1
Integrated library systems (ILS) are shared by more than 40 percent of our survey respondents, and we worked with three colleagues to cover that area. Randy Dykhuis (Midwest Collaborative for Library Services) provides a cautionary tale on a shared open-source Evergreen ILS. Vicki Teal Lovely (South Central Library System) shares the story of a vendor-hosted version of Koha’s open-source ILS. Jeanine Gatzke and Belinda E. Lawrence ( Midwest Collaborative for Library Services) provide a case study on a shared commercial ILS.
Digital and physical collections are often managed by library consortia, and we included a case study on each. The Collaborative Digital Initiatives case study by consultant Liz Bishoff examines several state-of-the-art digital libraries. Jay Schafer (University of Massachusetts-Amherst) authored a study on the shared physical repository project of the Five Colleges in western Massachusetts.
Other innovative trends related to human resources and fiscal management are detailed in the case studies. We begin with the 2CUL model in which two major universities are collaborating, sharing staffing and systems at an unprecedented level. This deep collaborative project is taking place at Cornell and Columbia Universities, and the case study was contributed by Anne R. Kenney and James Neal. The next case study in this area, by Lisa Priebe (Colorado Library Consortium), describes how a consortium can assist its partners with contracted staffing. The Bibliotemps case study, by Kelly Jo Woodside (Massachusetts Library System) examines a consortium that created a temporary employment service. Valerie Horton closes out the case studies with a picture of consortial fiscal sponsorship for projects and services at the Colorado Library Consortium.
Each case study starts with a bulleted list of the consortial or library need for the given activities. It is followed by a list of the benefits that have accrued from the service. The authors follow those lists with details about the project. It is our hope that these case studies can be used by others to push the envelope in designing successful new services.
Note
1. Marshall Breeding, “New Era for Koha: PTFS Acquires LibLime,” Library Journal (February 2010): 15.