Gwen Bird Executive Director, COPPUL Leonora Crema

Gwen Bird Executive Director, COPPUL

Leonora CremaAUL Client Services & Programs, UBC andChair, SPAN Management Committee

Council of Prairie and Pacific University LibrariesShared Print Archive Network(COPPUL SPAN)

About COPPUL23 university libraries in Canada’s four western provinces• range in size from <8k-10M vols• covering land mass of 1,122,320 sq miles

Long tradition of resource sharing: • ILL, discovery systems, e-licensing, digital archiving

One of several Canadian consortia involved in shared print• also national ‘last copy’ discussion in Library & Archives

Canada

Hi. We’re

up here.

Canada’s geography is a driver for:

regional systems spanning vast distances and jurisdictions

pooling assets and technologies to solve problems

• but outside urban areas a ‘relatively attenuated infrastructure to support flow-based model’

What precipitated action?Several factors:• changing use• shared print had reached scale• on Canadian campuses, space pressures with funds for public

infrastructure renewal

Within COPPUL:• history of trusted relationships

– continue building on what we have• invested in learning events and consultancy• kept it simple, practical, low-risk

– driving goal was space repurposing rather than collection management protocols

Emily Stambaugh of WEST

GovernanceWhere many efforts bog down…

COPPUL went for governance ‘lite’• sought commitment, not consensus• 5-person management team composed by role rather

than region or institution• modest fees paid to COPPUL to host• no permanent agreement: 5-year renewable

Agreement available at: www.coppul.ca/projects/SPAN%20AgreementApril2012revWEB.pdf

The result?After our first 6 months:

• 19 libraries signed membership and paid fees

• 1,700+ journal titles (60,000 vols) designated for retention by 10 libraries

• working to expose in WorldCat and PAPR

• attributes of distributed and repository model

• FAQs and learning events for staff, users planned

….for about $27,000, ‘all in’

Collection analysis phase• commissioned custom report from OCLC

>19M vols; % unique & % overlap; list of serials held at 10+ sites; but some flaws

• collected serials holdings lists from largest members

• developed tool to scrape serial holdings from catalogues of other members

• grant-funded summer student provided analysis brainpower

Built for co-operation• years of study & investigation…but at

implementation, not an early starter• designed for co-operation beyond own

borders from outset • risk analysis framework– Phase 1 = all low risk (build trust!)

• node in an optimal copies network

Local development of tools– registry to expose retention commitments;

currently suspended– collection analysis tool; weighed against

PAPR’s collection analysis module – will be re-evaluated for subsequent phases

“Thin consortial layer”

“Analog preservation needs to be in the background, something that happens but not something we fuss about. Simplicity and ‘no noise’ are important features.”

-COPPUL Board member

Canadian context• 4 regional university library consortia

(COPPUL, OCUL, CREPUQ, CAUL) and one national consortium (CRKN)

• Library and Archives Canada, Pan-Canadian Documentary

Heritage Network• global view of collaboration across

jurisdictions

What next?• template to report weeding has been

distributed; awaiting responses• assessment of Phase 1• establish priorities for Phase 2• policy & procedures for higher risk items • 20th member poised to join• records in PAPR, WorldCat• links with other groups

[email protected] [email protected]