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

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.

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

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!

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

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

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

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…

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

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

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.

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

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 and non-returnables

Other Consortial Service Examples Shared storage centers Preservation activities Digitization and conservation Staff training, continuing education, consulting Management consulting

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

Illinois Academic and Research Libraries Eligible for MembershipActual Members Public Universities14 Private Colleges & Universities 9372 Community Colleges4842 Specialized Institutions2313 Total141

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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 CARLI Collection Awards Program

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

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 CARLI Office Staff

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

CARLI Membership Categories During transition from 3 consortia to CARLI, , 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

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

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.

CARLI Office 501 E. Daniel Street Suite 228, Library and Information Sciences Building Champaign, IL