Definition

The Orbis Cascade Alliance is committed to sharing the combined resources of our member libraries.  This aggregation of all shareable resources is known as the Shared Collection.  It represents a coordinated effort to expand access to a broad range of resources that support the educational mission, advance the research, and preserve the cultural heritage of Alliance members and the Pacific Northwest region. By intentionally building and maintaining the Shared Collection, the Alliance maximizes our resources to better serve our academic communities.  The Shared Collection requires coordinated collection development and management decisions, shared local collections, thoughtfully developed jointly owned collections, and resource allocation to support centralized systems and services that promote coordination, efficiency, and assessment. 

The members of the Alliance recognize the existence of multiple barriers to the aspirational goals of the Shared Collection, such as barriers to sharing of licensed electronic resources, and cost-intensive practices like creating metadata to promote discoverability and access, or digitizing content in order to preserve unique or rare materials. Our commitment to the Shared Collection relies on our willingness to push existing boundaries on what can be shared through strategic collaboration, enabling the broadest possible access to resources within the Pacific Northwest.

Potential Applications

The concept of the Shared Collection enables member libraries to plan and act strategically on collections-related initiatives, which may include:

Prioritize purchasing for local needs. Member libraries are empowered to prioritize use of local funds to build collections that support high priority, core local needs. All members recognize that by sharing their resources, they are building an aggregated shared collection with stronger depth and breadth to support curricular and research needs across the Alliance.

Coordinate planning to ensure scope, breadth, and depth of the shared collection. By coordinating collection development across the Alliance, members purchase new resources strategically, coordinate management of in-kind donations, and engage in other collection development processes and initiatives with the broad goal of working cooperatively toward shared collection goals.

Create a shared storage facility. A central, optimized facility serves all Alliance libraries by providing remote storage and digitization on demand for print collections, supporting transportation and delivery of physical items and controlled digital lending.

Strategically align staffing and processes for managing collections across member libraries. Library staff contribute time and expertise to workflows and projects that improve description, discoverability, processing, preservation, and digitization of shared resources.

Endorsed by Alliance Board and Council, March 2025