2024 WEST Member Meeting Recap: Harnessing the Value of Shared Print Through Local Action

Thank you to everyone who was able to join us Friday, 7/26/2024, for our annual WEST Member Meeting! For those of you who were not able to attend, or for those who’d like to review some of the presentations or panel discussion, the recording and slides are now available for review, linked here and on our Documents and Presentations page.

Two key questions came up regarding the WEST / Internet Archive digitization pilot which we wanted to highlight below:

• Will donated items be findable in the contributing library’s ILS or available for ILL through the contributing library?
  • The data for these donations will be compiled in a WEST donating entity page for IA so we can have the data back if libraries want to put information out about what titles they donated and track what information libraries are compiling together
  • Libraries can also control their records in the ways they wish – GTU for example kept the records for the items they have donated and added the links to the digitized copy in those records so that patrons can still find them this way
• How will this pilot address conflicts around deselection and difficulties with donation workflows?
  • One of the benefits of this pilot is to do some shared learning around how donation workflows can work in dif institutions – not just for IA but for WEST members who respond to calls for holdings for others
  • The feasibility of these donations vary for members – so this is an opportunity to contribute to investigating this opportunity and then refining these workflows

Additionally, we had a lively panel discussion covering a broad range of topics related to our theme of: Harnessing the value of shared print through local action. Some of they key points that emerged were:

• Going into a shared collection process, or with something like prospective collection development, you have to navigate ownership concerns
  • This is an opportunity for programs to step in and steer the shift from exclusive ownership by one institution to ownership by the collective instead
• We need to lean into existing consortial and reciprocal relationships in order to help members see immediate value in maintaining membership and perhaps investing in the future
• Few institutions have the budget to support ownership of everything their patrons need
  • This is where reframing the conversation from ownership to access comes in
  • Shared print is durable perpetual access but without the need to store or steward the whole collection
• Conversations about deselection are still a sticking point for many stakeholders
  • The status of librarians on campuses can make it difficult to get attention on shared print and get administration backing
  • Reference, outreach, and public services librarians are the ones who are our front line of interaction with faculty and patrons
    • We have to get them on board with these projects and make sure they’re aware of the work and benefits so they can frame and champion these efforts
• Deselection is ideally part of the collection management process – and this can be really difficult to communicate
  • This doesn’t mean that you don’t have collections that you grow and will never deselect either because you have heavy research interest or have unique items
  • As a flagship institution for a state these decisions can be especially difficult to manage
    • There’s an opportunity here for WEST and its membership to coalesce around this topic and help define what it means to be a regional library of record in the digital age
  • This is inherently related to questions around who should be doing the work of preserving shared print
  • One thing WEST does for libraries is to galvanize and formalize a community of practice