The Center for Research Libraries (also known by its acronym, CRL) is a consortium of North American universities, colleges, and independent research libraries, based on a buy-in concept for membership of the consortia. The consortium acquires and preserves traditional and digital resources for research and teaching and makes them available to member institutions through interlibrary loan and electronic delivery. It also gathers and analyzes data pertaining to the preservation of physical and digital resources, and fosters the sharing of expertise, in order to assist member libraries in maintaining their collections.[1]
The Center for Research Libraries was founded in 1949, as the Midwest Inter-Library Center (MILC). The traditional role of CRL was as an aggregator of tangible collection materials; however, this focus has been updated in the digital age into the CRL's current role as a facilitator of collection development, digitization, and licensing collections by individual libraries and interest groups.[2] This transformation required CRL to adopt new funding models from partnerships with key organizations, and use of current technology to support community outreach and engagement.[2] Funding was provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
History
When the Center for Research Libraries was founded in 1949, it was a product of the post-World War II era, and focused specifically on print materials. It was established by ten midwestern universities, and was established to support humanities studies and social science research efforts. CRL was originally built to manage a collective collection that no one university could maintain, and contents included foreign newspapers, government documents, microform archives, historic journals, foreign dissertations, and other material identified as critical to research.[2]
Since 2013, CRL has hosted NERL, originally known as the NorthEast Research Libraries Consortium, an academic libraryconsortium that negotiates licenses for online products on behalf of 28 member academic research libraries and 80 affiliates.[3]
Digital era
The introduction of the internet and current technology meant that the relevancy of a physical repository became less important. Concerns shifted to the impact of globalization initiatives such as the financial industry, policy sector research, development of advanced information and text processing software applications to serve the for-profit research industry.[2] This new strategy had CRL break down their areas of resources into three main areas of service:
1. Expanding electronic access to critical primary source materials, particularly news, archives, historic journals, and government information, for the CRL community through systematic digitization of CRL and member library collections and digitization of source materials to support specific scholarly projects.
2. Supporting informed investment in digital resources and preservation by making available to CRL libraries actionable information on digital repositories, collections, and services.
3. Ensuring continuous, long-term access to "last-copy" paper and microform collections for the CRL community through coordinated archiving and collection-sharing arrangements with key partners.[2]
In 2008, the Center for Research Libraries was awarded a $1.45 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support this initiative.
Global Resources Forum
The economic downturn of 2007–2008 resulted in reduced library budgets, and with respect to out of control publisher pricing, many universities cut their budgets for maintaining print journal subscriptions. CRL came together to attempt to support continued access to these print journal collections, and one result of this effort was the Print Archives Preservation Registry (PAPR). PAPR is part of a larger program entitled the Global Resources Forum (GRF) that supports library and consortia decision-making on collection management and investment. "One of several components of a larger CRL program of support for consortia decision-making on collection management and investment, the Global Resources Forum. The Global Resources Forum (GRF) evolved from CRL's longstanding cooperative collection-building efforts, and applies the successful template for those area studies programs to the broader sphere of humanities and social science resources.
Like the Area Microform and Global Resources projects, GRF activities leverage for the common good the formidable pool of expertise and knowledge on traditional and digital collections that exists among CRL's extensive community."[2] Ultimately, the GRF combines open access online resources such as data and analysis with limited-participation in both virtual and in-person roundtable discussions. These discussions include publication of audits of repositories like Portico, and examination of databases of primary source collections in areas of interest, which in turn provide critical information by which CRL libraries can base their acquisition policy and collection decisions. "In some instances the databases evaluated are digital versions of collections that CRL holds in microform or in print, and thus offer the prospect of replacing microfilm or hard copy delivery with electronic access."[2]
Administration and membership
CRL is governed by a Board of Directors made up of library directors from member institutions. The member libraries contribute a percentage of their own collection-development budget to CRL as an annual membership fee.[4] Many libraries are CRL members as a result of their belonging to consortia which are themselves members. There are 250 libraries who are members of the CRL.[2]
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The Center oversees the International Coalition on Newspapers (est. 1999), an effort to "promote the accessibility and preservation of international newspaper collections".[6]
Collections
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CRL houses large collective collections of newspapers, international doctoral dissertations, government documents and publications, international serials, and Russian monographs.[7]
Access
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CRL's holdings are in OCLC's WorldCat. Items are loaned to members at no charge, while non-members are charged for access to the collections.[8]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Bernard Reilly (January 2012). "Global Resources: How a Cooperative Collection Development Enterprise Keeps Pace with a Rapidly Changing World". Journal of Library Administration. 52: 70–77. doi:10.1080/01930826.2011.629961. S2CID62612864.
The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) is a US nonprofit consortium of more than 100 colleges and universities providing research and training in the atmospheric and related sciences. UCAR manages the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and provides additional services to strengthen and support research and education through its community programs. Its headquarters, in Boulder, Colorado, include NCAR's Mesa Laboratory, designed by I.M. Pei.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 127 research libraries at comprehensive, research institutions in Canada and the United States. ARL member libraries make up a large portion of the academic and research library marketplace, spending $4 billion every year on information resources and actively engaging in the development of new models of scholarly communications.
The Moorland–Spingarn Research Center (MSRC) in Washington, D.C., is located on the campus of Howard University on the first and ground floors of Founders Library. The MSRC is recognized as one of the world's largest and most comprehensive repositories for the documentation of the history and culture of people of African descent in Africa, the Americas, and other parts of the world. As one of Howard University's major research facilities, the MSRC collects, preserves, organizes and makes available for research a wide range of resources chronicling the Black experience. Thus, it maintains a tradition of service which dates to the formative years of Howard University, when materials related to Africa and African Americans were first acquired.
The California Digital Library (CDL) was founded by the University of California in 1997. Under the leadership of then UC President Richard C. Atkinson, the CDL's original mission was to forge a better system for scholarly information management and improved support for teaching and research. In collaboration with the ten University of California Libraries and other partners, CDL assembled one of the world's largest digital research libraries. CDL facilitates the licensing of online materials and develops shared services used throughout the UC system. Building on the foundations of the Melvyl Catalog, CDL has developed one of the largest online library catalogs in the country and works in partnership with the UC campuses to bring the treasures of California's libraries, museums, and cultural heritage organizations to the world. CDL continues to explore how services such as digital curation, scholarly publishing, archiving and preservation support research throughout the information lifecycle.
The University of Maryland Libraries is the largest university library in the Washington D.C.–Baltimore area. The university's library system includes eight libraries: six are located on the College Park campus, while the Severn Library, an off-site storage facility, is located just outside campus, and the Priddy Library is located on the University System of Maryland satellite campus in Shady Grove.
Ann Shumelda Okerson is an American librarian and expert on the licensing of electronic resources and the place of digital technologies in academic and research libraries.
The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) is an informal, self-organized group of library consortia from around the world; it exists for the strategic and practical discussions of issues of common interest among its consortia members. The ICOLC first met informally as the Consortium of Consortia (COC) in 1997. Over time, its name was adjusted to reflect its increasingly global character.
The Digital Preservation Award is an international award sponsored by the Digital Preservation Coalition. The award 'recognises the many new initiatives being undertaken in the challenging field of digital preservation'. It was inaugurated in 2004 and was initially presented as part of the Institute of ConservationConservation Awards. Since 2012 the prize, which includes a trophy and a cheque, is presented independently. Awards ceremonies have taken place at the British Library, the British Museum and the Wellcome Trust.
The Atlanta University Center (AUC) Robert W. Woodruff Library is a library in Atlanta which serves the four members of the Atlanta University Center, the world's oldest consortium of historically black colleges and universities and the Interdenominational Theological Center. The library, constructed in 1982, is named for Robert Winship Woodruff, former CEO of the Coca Cola Company. In 2010, the library completed a $16.2 million renovation, partly funded by donations from the Coca Cola Company.
In the context of libraries and archives, an inventory refers to a detailed list or record of the items, materials, or resources held within a collection.
A library consortium is any cooperative association of libraries that coordinates resources and/or activities on behalf of its members, whether they are academic, public, school or special libraries, and/or information centers. Library consortia have been created to service specific regions or geographic areas, e.g., local, state, regional, national or international. Many libraries commonly belong to multiple consortia. The goal of a library consortium is to amplify the capabilities and effectiveness of its member libraries through collective action, including, but not limited to, print or electronic resource sharing, reducing costs through group purchases of resources, and hosting professional development opportunities. The “bedrock principle upon which consortia operate is that libraries can accomplish more together than alone.”
Technical Report Archive & Image Library (TRAIL) is a national collaborative project initiated by the University of Arizona and the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA). It is now part of the Global Resources Network of the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), in cooperation with more than 50 partner institutions and personal members. TRAIL's purpose is to digitize, preserve, and make openly available technical reports published by agencies of the United States government. Technical reports often contain detailed information not published elsewhere, but can be difficult to find.
The United States Agricultural Information Network (USAIN) provides a forum for issues in agricultural information, guides U.S. national information policy for agriculture, and advises the National Agricultural Library.
Chicago Collections Consortium is a membership organization of more than 45 libraries, museums, historical societies, and other cultural heritage organizations collaborating to preserve and promote the history of the Chicago region.
The Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) is an academic library consortium of Ontario's 21 university libraries located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Formed in 1967, OCUL member institutions work together to maximize the expertise and resources of their institutions through shared services and projects. OCUL works together in a number of key areas of importance for library services, including collective content purchasing, shared digital infrastructure, external partnerships, and professional development initiatives.
A collective collection, shared collection, or shared print program is a joint effort by multiple academic or research libraries to house, manage, and provide access to their collective physical collections. Most shared print programs focus on collections of monographs and/or serials. Similar efforts have addressed acquisition and/or retention of microform, federal government documents, and digital collections. Shared print programs often have activities in common with national repositories and archiving programs. Discussions surrounding shared print programs in their current form have come to the forefront as a popular solution to shrinking collection budgets, rising costs of resources, and competing space needs.
The South Asian Microform Project, also known by South Asian Materials Project and SAMP is one of six programs headed by the Center for Research Libraries (CRL) Global network. SAMP preserves higher education material via microform, among other techniques.
Sarah M. Pritchard is an American academic librarian known for her contributions to research library governance, women's studies and the future of digital libraries.
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