The Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC) has partnered with Auto-Graphics, Inc. on a one-year pilot program to offer a revolutionary approach to shared print for academic libraries.
With the approval of the SCELC Board of Directors, the SCELC Shared Print and Resource Sharing Committees have begun to design, create, and implement a pilot shared print discovery catalog built on Auto-Graphics’ SHAREit resource-sharing platform.
The project, known as SHARP, will feature a database of the several million records of circulating print monograph retention commitments made by over 40 institutions participating in the SCELC Shared Print Program. The catalog will be available to participating libraries as a discovery tool, and the records will be exportable for use in other discovery layers, with links returning searchers to SHARP.
“SCELC is excited about this partnership with Auto-Graphics to create a discovery, access, and resource-sharing solution for monographic shared print retention commitments, filling an important gap in the infrastructure needs of Shared Print programs,” said Linda Wobbe, eJournal Relations Manager and Liaison to Resource Sharing and Shared Print Committees at SCELC. “The shared print community includes over 50 programs dedicated to retaining print resources and has registered over 25 million retention commitments in WorldCat with SCELC – the third-largest program in terms of registered retention commitments.”
While academic libraries across the country have designed many shared print solutions, there is still a lack of one cohesive approach. The key to this pioneering effort is adapting a proven resource-sharing system with a mechanism to house the metadata referencing the academic library’s shared print collection and its respective retention policy. Additionally, library staff can extract key metrics to give publishers direction on what to digitize.
“Auto-Graphics is excited about the opportunity to continue to work with SCELC, a national consortium,” said Albert Flores, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Auto-Graphics, Inc. “When SCELC presented the concept of a shared-print system, we felt strongly that SHAREit would be an ideal platform to solve the need for a regional or national shared-print solution for the academic community.”
Live status checks and resource-sharing functionality will be included in the initial implementation, with full functionality expected by the beginning of 2023.
The Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC) was established in 1986 to develop resource-sharing among the libraries of private academic institutions in Southern California. SCELC has grown to include libraries across California and 38 other states and is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation. Among the top five North American consortia in terms of licensing volume, SCELC represents 112 member institutions, over 200 affiliate institutions, an aggregate student population of approximately 500,000, more than $200 million in library budgets, and holdings comprising more than 21 million volumes. SCELC libraries can license nearly 2,500 electronic resources from more than 100 vendors.
Auto-Graphics, Inc. is a library management and sharing software company serving customers’ needs and technology to improve, assist, expand, and engage the communities they serve. Auto-Graphics was the first to provide Cloud-based library resource management to library consortia in 1994. For over 60 years, Auto-Graphics has sustained growth in carefully targeted directions, using the most state-of-the-art tools and good old-fashioned business relationships. Its focus on industry requirements, high standards, product warranty, technically oriented staff, and serviceability have all contributed to the success we see today. For more information, please visit the A-G website at www.auto-graphics.com.
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Dr. Murphy has been a director since December 2012. He has over 20 years experience as a successful software executive specializing in high-growth SaaS companies. He currently is CEO of GVNG Technology and Practitioner of Strategy at the Pepperdine Graziadio Business School. Dr. Murphy is an active member on the board of directors for several early-stage and private equity owned companies. He received his MBA from Pepperdine University and his Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) from the Alliance Manchester Business School at The University of Manchester.
Mr. Hicks, CPA, has been a director since February 2012. Mr. Hicks is Chairman of the Audit Committee. Mr. Hicks has been a practicing certified public accountant for over twenty-five years in addition to partnering and managing both an underground construction company and real estate development business. Currently, Mr. Hicks is a founder and senior partner of Hicks & Williams, LLP a certified public accounting firm providing tax, audit and management consulting services to small and medium size clients across the nation.
Mr. Heath has been a director since December 2012. Mr. Heath immigrated to California from Canada during the Internet commerce boom in 1999. Mr. Heath was formerly Vice President, Secondary Markets at Best Buy (2008-2010) and founded Dealtree.com in 1999, where he was CTO & COO from (2001-2010). Mr. Heath has developed expert system technologies for managing online sales channels and created several online marketplaces supporting secondary market sales. Mr. Heath is an Internet technology and business operations consultant and serves as President of Heath Investment Properties LLC. Mr. Heath is an active member of Rotary, and currently serves a Technology Director for District 5320 in Southern California.
Ken Kerr has been a director since April 2020. During his career, he served in a variety of leadership positions in sales, marketing, and operations with companies in startup, turnaround, and expansion. Most recently he was CEO/CFO of Advisys, Inc., a SaaS company providing financial planning solutions to Fortune 100 banks, brokerages and insurance companies, and thousands of independent financial advisers. He retired from Advisys in 2018 and now consults with businesses to improve profits and productivity through effective employee engagement strategies. Ken graduated Cum Laude from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and has an MBA with an emphasis in Technology Management from the University of Phoenix.
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