31 total days.
1,392 miles in flight.
3,236 miles by car.

Between March 20th and November 6th, I visited each Alliance member institution in person. Each of our libraries is unique in its physical geography, size, structure, and relation to campus. But when I sat down with people in each library, it affirmed for me that despite how different we may be, we are brought together by our shared belief in the role of libraries in education; our shared hopes for our students and our institutions; and the shared challenges we are trying to overcome.

Across my visits, I heard this consistently:

• We care about teaching and learning. We are creating new positions to support first-year students; collaborating with writing and tutoring centers; developing programs to support faculty pedagogy; strengthening library instruction programs; and committing to the accessibility of learning materials. We are all actively working with faculty and helping students thrive in their learning environments.

• We care about students as people. We are providing holistic development for student employees; partnering with campus food pantries to support basic needs; creating textbook affordability programs; and cultivating belonging in our spaces and services. We recognize that students’ education is impacted by their identities, resources, and environment. 

• We care about our profession and our colleagues. We are advocating for better pay for library workers and reinstatement of personnel lines; creating communities within common areas of work; supporting new colleagues who are learning on the job; advocating for the library within our institutions; and working for an affordable and equitable scholarly publishing ecosystem. We are pushing back on systemic expectations for our libraries to do more with the same (or less). 

In all of this, I see roles for the Alliance to advance and support these common activities and aspirations — through our role as a convener and facilitator of collaborative work, and through the efforts of the Alliance central staff.

To everyone who welcomed me on my travels, thank you for sharing your time, your voice, and your libraries with me – I feel connected to the Alliance in an entirely new way, and inspired by the possibilities. I hope that you see your interests and ideas reflected in the Alliance community in the months and years to come. And please keep sharing your ideas with me!

135 Member Staff Attend SCTS Professional Development Event

The Shared Content & Technical Services program hosted SCTS Days from October 22-24. This year’s theme was “Back to Basics,” highlighting everyday workflows and best practices. The content had a special focus on supporting member staff who are new to the Alliance, as well as those tasked with new responsibilities. Topics included Alma workflows, cataloging best practices, open access strategies, and more.

135 individual member staff attended one or more SCTS Days sessions. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with attendees commenting, “These were extremely helpful to me, among the best sessions I’ve ever attended” and “Back to basics sessions are very helpful for those of us with years of experience [who have been] doing things the same way. It is beneficial to see the new features demonstrated and discussed.”

The event recordings and materials, including slide decks and supplemental documents, are all available on the SCTS Days event Web page.

Student affordability is a critical issue in higher education, both nationally and in the Pacific Northwest. The Washington Student Achievement Council identifies affordability as a key area in its 2025 Strategic Action Plan. The Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission lists “Affordable Access” as a goal in its 2024-2029 Strategic Plan. The Idaho State Board of Education 2025-2029 Strategic Plan emphasizes access and retention, two goals directly connected to affordability. 

Alliance member libraries have been on the forefront of improving student affordability for over a decade, through open educational resources (OER) programs, textbook purchasing and course reserve services, and advocacy within their institutions. Within the Alliance as a collective, affordability strategies continue to evolve. While the Alliance initially focused its efforts on OER, we have expanded our scope this year through discussions with Open Oregon about new models for course material procurement, the future of campus bookstores, and libraries’ potential roles.

There are many opportunities for Alliance members to engage in these conversations. This month, Open Oregon is hosting two webinars that highlight both individual library and consortium-based textbook affordability initiatives: Ohio’s Innovative Approaches to Textbook Procurement (November 19) and Library-Led Textbook Affordability Initiatives (November 20). Both webinars are open to anyone, and will be archived for later viewing. Within the Alliance, Chelle Batchelor (WOU) and Julia Stone (PSU) are convening an ongoing Innovative and Affordable Course Materials Discussion Group, with a focus on library-bookstore collaborations, consortial licensing, and bookstore RFPs.