Cornell and Columbia Libraries combine technical services

Cornell and Columbia Libraries to Build a Joint Technical Infrastructure

Mellon Grant Enables 2CUL Partnership to Combine Technical Services Departments

“Thanks to a three-year, $350,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the two libraries will integrate their technical services departments. These departments purchase and license library materials, such as books, e-books, e-journals, databases and more, and they provide data so that users can find and use those materials.”

Thanks to Gary of InfoDocket for the news.

Technical Services and Cross-Institutional Collaboration

The benefits of coordinating skills and proficiencies across technical services in multi-type cooperatives

Authors Margaret Beecher Maurer, Julie Gammon and Bonita Pollock publish their findings and recommendations from an OhioLINK study. “Developing Best Practices for Technical Services in Cross-Institutional Collaboration.”

Abstract:
The OhioLINK CollaboraTeS Project was initiated to support cross-institutional collaborations by building a skills inventory and by defining collaborative best practices. This article discusses what was learned and defines best practices for collaboration. The authors recommend the creation of regional technical services skills inventories, and the application of management and financial best practices to collaborations. Librarians should be confident they possess these skills because many of them have been learned in other environments. Collaboration represents a bright future for libraries struggling to meet tight budgets. Providing the tools and best practices for collaboration makes it easier for libraries to participate.

ALCTS Collaboration Citations

February 23, 2010

CHICAGO-The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) is awarding the ALCTS Outstanding Collaboration Citation to two distinguished libraries. This year’s recipients, in recognition of their outstanding collaborative partnerships are: the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the digitization component of the Encyclopedia of Life, which is a consortium of 12 major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries and research institutions organized to digitize, serve and preserve the legacy literature of biodiversity; and the Juliette K. and Leonard S. Rakow Research Library of The Corning Museum of Glass, Corning N.Y.