Alliance Services

The Orbis Cascade Alliance pushes the boundaries of what is possible in libraries through strategic collaboration in the Pacific Northwest. To advance member institutions, we create and deliver innovative, sustainable, and essential library programs and resources:

Collectively, these services provide a substantial return on investment for members:

  • Alliance Membership Increases Access: The Alliance facilitates shared access to over 22 million physical items in our libraries’ collections, as well as access to collectively-licensed subscriptions to 230,000+ ebooks and 80,000 streaming videos, and shared ownership of 22,000+ ebooks. Through these shared content and resource sharing collaborations, students and faculty at member institutions have far greater access to resources for teaching, learning, and research.
  • Alliance Membership is a Resource Multiplier: The Alliance helps member libraries steward their financial resources. Through collective negotiation and economies of scale, funds invested into Alliance-licensed library and archives systems, ebooks, streaming media, journals, and databases, go much further than if a library were to try to license or purchase the same resources themselves. And by working collaboratively, members improve transparency and information sharing about the quality and cost of information resources–which benefits both collective and local negotiations. 
  • Alliance Membership Creates Local Capacity for Student and Faculty Support: The Alliance helps member libraries focus on meeting the unique needs of their students and faculty. All member libraries need the foundational systems and resources available through the Alliance; by allowing the Alliance to manage these through central services and collective shared work, member libraries can dedicate more capacity to services that only they can provide to their local communities.
  • Alliance Membership Helps Develop and Support Library Personnel: Through educational opportunities and community events, the Alliance creates a supportive community for member library personnel. The Alliance provides an accessible, regional network to help library workers learn and grow and receive critical support in their work.