Centralia College has taken the lead on developing a statewide library consortium among the state’s community and technical colleges.
The project, which is estimated to take two to three years to implement, will allow the state’s two-year college library system to share resources.
“This will be a leaps and bounds improvement to students and faculty at Centralia and across the state in terms of access of quality resources and information services,” Sue Kennedy, Centralia College’s dean of library and eLearning, said.
As of now, students and faculty members only have access to what is available in their own library. The consortium would open up resources of more than 30 community and technical colleges statewide to allow students and faculty to borrow resource materials through an interlibrary loan and to access databases through shared licenses.
“Resources will expand exponentially,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy has been helping to build the framework for the consortium. She is on the governance committee for the project and said they are looking at models of consortiums already implemented in Oregon and Ohio colleges.
The project will require colleges to migrate to a new library system. Centralia College’s technology librarian Julie Nurse is leading the college’s system migration, which is scheduled for spring. According to Kennedy, the project will allow colleges to leverage resources across the system so librarians can focus on instruction and services.
“It’s truly a monumental time for CTC libraries,” she said.
