2025 WEST Member Meeting Recap: Why WEST Now? Protecting our foundations in times of turmoil and uncertainty

Thank you to everyone who was able to join us Thursday, 7/24/2025, 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.

WEST Executive chair Jo Anne Newyear-Ramirez welcomed WEST members to the annual member meeting and spoke to the value of WEST, and the value of collaboration broadly, in these uncertain times.

WEST has become a model for how shared print initiatives represent our most sustainable path forward for preserving knowledge for future generations. We are at a point in time where collection collaboration such as shared print initiatives are even more critical… Through your institution’s membership in WEST you have demonstrated that, rather than each of us maintaining duplicate copies of the same materials, libraries can coordinate their retention decisions and collaborate to ensure that comprehensive collections are preserved while reducing individual institutional burdens.

 – Jo Anne Newyear Ramirez, WEST Executive Chair and Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Resources, University of California Berkeley

We had a lively panel discussion covering a broad range of topics related to our theme of: Why WEST Now? Protecting our foundations in times of turmoil and uncertainty.

Some of they key points that emerged were:

On assessing the value of consortial memberships from the library perspective:

• Generally, there is a need to be smart and cost effective with what memberships we choose to maintain right now 
  • One speaker created a matrix which she shared with attendees to help assess current memberships
  • There is also a lot of interest in ROI impact analyses services for libraries
    • Need to help libraries show what their value is and what they’re providing to the university 
• It can also be important to look at organizational values in conjunction with the values of the consortia
  • If a consortia’s values fit with a library’s strategic priorities this makes it easier to articulate why the membership is important and what we’re doing to collaborate with other libraries on a given priority
    • This is really compelling to admin and helps with communication 
• There is an opportunity for consortia to create accountability structures for adoption of best practices and shared policies

On assessing the value of consortial memberships from the consortial perspective:

• Times of scarce resources are when consortia really need to articulate what they can offer and what they provide (aka what we do and why we do it)
• When working with small or mid-sized libraries it is critically important to be able to articulate personalized value
• One of the most beneficial things that come out of library consortia is connecting libraries with one another – connecting expertise / experience and building the community
• Opportunities for “just in time” and “just what’s needed” education are extremely valuable right now
  • There is a need to consider how we elevate education and training to a level where members can participate more fully

On the value of WEST specifically:

• With WEST the ability to collaboratively approach collections is a huge opportunity
  • Many libraries are currently trying to determine how we find space and where we make room – WEST helps libraries make these calculations while maintaining access
  • It’s possible for libraries to articulate clearly in dollars what WEST saves them (or could save them) in terms of space that no longer needs to be dedicated to journal collections because of assured access through WEST partner libraries

Many thanks to our panelists Karen Estlund (Dean of Libraries, Colorado State University Libraries), Anne Craig (Senior Director, CARLI) and Danielle Salomon (Director of Libraries, Mount Saint Mary’s University) and moderator Alison Wohlers (WEST Program Manager).

The meeting ended with three lightning talks highlighting how WEST is taking action as a community to ensure ongoing preservation and access to the print record and communicating about that work. Presentations included:

• WEST Internet Archive Pilot – a cohort of WEST libraries identified and donated close to 10,000 WEST archived titles for digitization by the Internet Archive and ongoing access via ILL
• WEST ASU Gap Filling Pilot – ASU colleagues added 4,074 number of print volumes to fill gaps in their higher risk WEST archives and made recommendations for enhancing gap-filling work moving forward in WEST
• WEST Communication Resources – WEST has begun work to help member libraries connect their work in WEST with work happening across their libraries by enhancing existing communication resources and creating new ones that speak specifically to member strategic priorities. WEST is working on several new blog post series as a part of this work, read more about these initiatives at the links below:
  • Moments of Community Action:
    • Celebrating WEST Member Contributions to Community Documentation
    • The Iowa State Cyclones Answer the Call (for Holdings)
  • Deselection Deep Dives:
    • San Diego State University
    • Graduate Theological Union

Many thanks to our lightning talk presenters Niamh Wallace (Associate Librarian / Print & Collaborative Collection Initiatives Unit Lead, University of Arizona), Shari Laster (Head, Open Collections Curation and Access / Interim Associate University Librarian, Collections, Arizona State University), and Nika Burns Teshin (WEST Analyst). 

Watch the full member meeting recording for more!