CARLI: The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois

1. CARLI:The Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois Cathy Salika October 15, 2007

2. CARLI’s Mission The Consortium leads Illinois academic libraries to create and sustain a rich, supportive, and diverse knowledge environment that furthers teaching, learning, and research through the sharing of collections, expertise and programs.

3. CARLI is a Consortium • What is a consortium? • Organization of several, separate institutions that agree to collaborate to have advantages that they could not achieve on their own • Consortia (plural of “consortium”) are increasingly common in the library world

4. Advantages of Consortia • Strength in numbers • Negotiation and advocacy • Greater collections • Large purchase discounts • Efficiency in shared services • Reduce duplication of efforts • Specialization opportunities • Avoid or reduce costs for services available through the consortium • Offer more services to library users!

5. Consortial Operation • Many options for organizational structure, including: • Funded and operated by a governmental agency • Not-for-profit corporation Commonly called a “501c3” in USA • Hosted by member institution(s) • Decentralized and volunteer-driven

6. How are Consortia Funded? • Any or a combination of: • Government appropriation • Member contributions or assessments • Grants • “Pass-through” funds (Members pay the consortium, the consortium passes the funds on to a vendor) • Often a combination of the above

7. Consortial Governance • Many models • May or may not have paid staff • Usually have some sort of Board of Directors from the membership and/or funding agencies • Often have committees and task forces of member library staff that work on consortial projects • May or may not have formal by-laws • Generally have a mission statement and or strategic plan

8. Why Join a Consortium? • Increase efficiency by sharing work with similar organizations • Make the most of your • Budget • Staff time & skills • Collections • Provide Better Service to Users • Let’s look at some examples of library consortial services…

9. Common Consortial Services:Licensed electronic resources • Negotiation of price, access terms • Drafting legal contracts with vendors • Billing participating libraries • Setting up access configuration/authentication • Training staff • Troubleshooting problems • Renewing contracts

10. Common Consortial Services:Shared Online Systems • Many models of operation and co-operation • Purchased and operated by the consortium for all members • Purchased and operated by the consortium for some of its members • Discount pricing made available to members who wish to operate the service themselves • Various combinations of these models

11. Common Consortial Services:Shared Online Catalogs • Providing a “union catalog” of member library holdings • Running the computer servers and software • Catalog record creation, updating, reporting • Training staff • Troubleshooting • Development of customized services • Maintaining the contract, payments with vendor, from libraries, etc.

12. Common Consortial Services:Shared Digital Libraries • Collaborative digitization projects • Shared servers • Consortial licensing of digital content • Sharing expertise

13. Other Cooperative Services • Resource sharing • Borrowing and lending returnables By staff or patrons • Onsite and remote access for each others’ patrons • Agreements for document delivery cooperation • Cooperative collection development • Delivery service for returnables andnon-returnables

14. Other ConsortialService Examples • Shared storage centers • Preservation activities • Digitization and conservation • Staff training, continuing education, consulting • Management consulting

15. CARLI Details • 181 Illinois institutions eligible to participate • Illinois colleges and universities • Some special research libraries • 141 have chosen to participate • CARLI established in 2005 from the consolidation of three Illinois library consortia • CARLI has staff based at the University of Illinois that coordinate its programs for all participating libraries

16. Illinois Academic and Research Libraries

17. CARLI’s History • CARLI is both new and old • CARLI formed in 2005 from 3 Illinois consortia: • ILCSO • Formed in 1980 • Primary service: Shared integrated library system • ICCMP • Formed in 1986 • Primary service: Statewide collection studies and grants • IDAL • Formed in 1999 • Primary service: Electronic resource licensing

18. CARLI’s Services • Centralized automated systems • I-Share (Voyager integrated system) • SFX link resolver • CARLI Digital Collection • Electronic resource purchases • Training and continuing education for member libraries • Monetary awards for collection enhancement • Monetary awards for digitization (in 2008) • Delivery service (in 2008)

19. I-Share (Voyager integrated system) • Online catalog for 71 (soon to be 76+) CARLI libraries • More than 9.6 million bibliographic records • More than 34 million items • Participating libraries share their collections • Patrons may borrow from any I-Share library remotely, or by visiting other participating libraries • Over 350,000 “resource sharing” loans in I-Share each year • http://I-Share.carli.illinois.edu

20. Consortial I-Share Services • Shared centralized online catalog • Runs on a centralized set of computer servers operated by CARLI staff • Shared software license • Resource sharing • Users able to borrow from all I-Share libraries • CARLI staff provide help desk service to participating libraries • I-Share libraries collaborate to share ideas and skills

21. CARLI Digital Collections • New program in 2006 • CARLI runs CONTENTdm software on a consortial computer • CARLI provides disk storage and library training and support • Participating libraries load their digital collections for shared use • http://collections.carli.illinois.edu/

22. CARLI E-Resources • CARLI subsidized services paid in full for all member libraries: • EBSCO Academic Search Premier • Business Source Elite • Harper’s Weekly, 1857-1912 • Mary Ann Liebert Science Journals • netLibrary ebooks • Oxford English Dictionary Online • Illinois DigitalSanborn Maps

23. CARLI E-Resources • Over 200 brokered services • Licensed by CARLI, paid for by libraries • CARLI negotiates discount pricing • Each library selects the services it wants • Libraries pay CARLI, CARLI pays the vendor • These payments are called “Pass through funds” as CARLI passes them on to the vendor in full

24. CARLI Collection Awards Program • CARLI funds monetary awards given each year to member libraries to enhance their collections • Purchasing of unique, expensive resources to share • Grants for preservation and preservation training • CARLI Book Digitization Initiative • New in 2008 • Focus on Illinois Culture and Heritage

25. The CARLI Organization • 15 member elected Board of Directors • Many CARLI committees, task forces, etc. • CARLI consortium staff • Executive director • 28 full time staff Based in Champaign, Chicago, Springfield and DeKalb • Two staff work from out of state

26. CARLI Office Staff • Provide these services: • “Help desk” support for CARLI online systems • Network administration • Database administration • System administration • System security • Software development • Data analysis • Business and contract management

27. CARLI Funding Sources • Fiscal Year 2008 (July 2007-June 2008) • Illinois Board of Higher Education • $4.4 million • Member library assessments • $1.2 million • “Pass through funds” • Purchases, usually e-resources for member libraries • $3.8 million

28. CARLI Membership Categories • During transition from 3 consortia to CARLI, 2005-2007, all eligible libraries were “members” (181 libraries) • After July 2007, libraries choose to be CARLI members • CARLI membership categories Governing • Fee between $750 and $10,000 • Varies by enrollment and degrees offered Associate • $500 flat fee Basic • $100 flat fee

29. The Drawbacks of Consortia • Takes effort to establish governance, funding models • Often rely on a lot of volunteer effort • Decision-making can be slow and require consensus or compromises • Consortia can overlap each other, duplicate effort and compete

30. Trends in Library Consortia • Consortia continue to grow in number and size • Consortia working together on national, international basis • ICOLC--International Coalition of Library Consortia • Consortia developing best practices and standards in statistics, purchasing, etc. • Consortia serving as collective library advocacy body with publishers, vendors, etc.

31. CARLI Office 501 E. Daniel Street Suite 228, Library and Information Sciences Building Champaign, IL 61820 E-mail: support@carli.illinois.edu