Next-Generation Technical Services Across the U.S.
The University of California is not alone in planning for and experimenting with new ways to collaborate and share expertise. Other libraries across the country are forming unique partnerships to transform both collections and technical services operations. Library consortia are beginning to experiment with initiatives that use collaboration in new ways.
Two examples are the Orbis Cascade Alliance, a consortium of 37 academic libraries in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and 2CUL, a partnership between Columbia University Libraries and Cornell University Library.
The Orbis Cascade Alliance has made collaborative technical services a key component of their strategic agenda. So far, they have gone from broad investigation to more focused initiatives including issuing an RFP for a shared integrated library system (ILS); implementation of an e-book pilot; a pilot in cataloging Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language monographs as a consortium; and a Fedora-based Institutional Repository pilot with the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries.
Columbia University Libraries (CUL) and Cornell University Library (CUL) are building a transformative partnership (2CUL) aimed at integrating resources, collections, services, and expertise between the two library systems. Projects include sharing one Slavic Studies Selector, sharing collection building in South Asian Studies, the cataloging of a backlog of Korean-language materials, and an approval-plan pilot for 2CUL with Hong Kong University Library and a vendor in Beijing.
The UC libraries are keeping a watch on these developments and others, as they may provide valuable insights and lessons learned for Next-Generation Technical Services. —Vicki Grahame
