[LIBRARYDIR] Follow-up to the breakout sessions ("... 21st Century Libraries") at yesterday's LLC meeting

[Bem, Greg]

Centralizing work and reducing duplicitous efforts might relieve the burden of the Systems Librarian from many schools, as well... I really like where Wade's idea is pointing us, especially as a system/collective rather than a group of individual schools.

Greg Bem, MLIS
Faculty Library Coordinator
Library Learning Commons
Lake Washington Inst. Of Technology
Pronouns: he/him/his

Contact Info
greg.bem at lwtech.edu<mailto:greg.bem at lwtech.edu%0d>
425-739-8100 xt.8898
http://www.lwtech.edu/campus-life/library

From: LIBRARYDIR <librarydir-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Guidry, Wade via LIBRARYDIR
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2021 1:19 PM
To: WACTC Library Directors <librarydir at lists.ctc.edu>
Cc: Guidry, Wade <WadeG at bigbend.edu>
Subject: [LIBRARYDIR] Follow-up to the breakout sessions ("... 21st Century Libraries") at yesterday's LLC meeting

I had just a couple of follow-up ideas to share after yesterday afternoon's brainstorming session at Spring LLC meeting.

I don't know whether this came up in any of the other breakout groups (I missed the URL to the shared breakout notes), so I thought I'd share here. And I don't know whether the idea of statewide library platforms has already passed its expiration date, so this may be more of a thought experiment than anything...

One person earlier in an earlier part of yesterday's meeting mentioned the greater apparent focus of ELC, compared to LLC, thanks to Canvas, the ubiquitous elearning platform around which they can coalesce.

And, going back several years, the statewide library platform effort (SBCTC resolution 15 02 01<https://drive.google.com/file/d/16n7g7vo5CoBD9ytEEz1zTVY4j7g3ERpY/view?usp=sharing>) was seen as a similarly common platform around which libraries could organize. However, lack of ubiquitous institutional participation, and the inherently per-institution nature of funding, staffing and operating physical collections, introduced a lot of friction to that effort.

More recently, there has been discussion about shared eResource licensing being an effort for which SBCTC support might be enlisted. And I know firsthand that individual institutions are grappling with the efforts required to manage and maintain eResource discovery and delivery, beyond just the licensing part. And it's an effort which is unfortunately very often duplicative across institutions.

Tying those ideas together, I believe an opportunity could exist to decouple electronic resources management more completely from local operations, beyond just the licensing component. A more comprehensive program for managing and operating electronic resources could be developed, creating a sort of statewide CTC eLibrary, moving closer to the statewide library platform originally envisioned in the 2015 resolution.

In a statewide platform focused on eResources, a centralized team might be charged with coordinating the selection process, handling subscriptions, procurements and payments, vetting and promoting open access content, and also managing a central authentication, authorization and discovery platform focused on eResources. In a sense, it would be "Canvas for eResources," or "Canvas for Libraries".

I believe the product stack already exists to support this kind of effort, and could potentially leverage some stuff we already have. The challenges, as with the earlier platform effort, would be more organizational and financial. I don't think the staffing levels, funding, or expertise currently exist in the individual institutions to allow "crowdsourcing" a solution through working groups. But by focusing on eRsources, rather than physical collections, the problem set becomes more addressable centrally, might be less invasive or disruptive to the individual libraries that a comprehensive platform, and could be accomplished by a smaller set of people than a traditional statewide library platform would require.


Wade Guidry
Library Consortium Services Manager, WACTCLC
wadeg at bigbend.edu<mailto:wadeg at bigbend.edu>
(509) 760-4474
http://www.wactclc.org<http://www.wactclc.org/>

Schedule a meeting with me<https://calendly.com/wactclcalmaprimo/>
My Zoom Instant Meeting Link<https://bigbend.zoom.us/j/8763410457>



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