Collection Management |
PALCI and its Cooperative Collection Development (CCD) Task Force are currently involved in a number of collection management initiatives of benefit to libraries of all sizes through the PALCI region. Areas of activity include
- digital collections
- disaster preparedness
- distributed print journal archive
- e-book collections
In June 2008, the PALCI membership endorsed a statement on the future of PALCI library collections, which will serve as the basis for future cooperative collection management activities.
Digital Collections
As part of a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant, PALCI worked with PALINET (now LYRASIS) and the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL) to develop guidelines for digital collections for, by, and about Pennsylvania history, culture, and society. These guidelines were made available for review in spring 2008 and published in summer 2008.
You may view the history of this project by visiting its public wiki at http://pbwiki.padl.com. You may request a copy of the guidelines by contacting one of the project coordinators below.
For more information on this project, please contact:
- John Barnett, Acting Director, PALCI (email: barnett@palci.org; telephone: 412-247-4130)
- Tom Clareson, Program Director for New Initiatives, Lyrasis (email:Tom.Clareson@lyrasis.org)
- Laura Blanchard, Executive Director, PACSCL (email: lblanchard@pacscl.org; telephone: 215-985-1445)
You may view the brochure here:
front-newtext-final – PDF-File, 2.0 MB
interior-newtext-final – PDF-File, 2.0 MB
Disaster Preparedness
PALCI encourages the creation of disaster preparedness plans and activities among its member libraries. The Cooperative Collection Development Task Force’s Disaster Preparedness Work Group recommends a number of helpful sites to assist PALCI libraries with their disaster preparedness and emergency response efforts:
- The Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, http://www.ccaha.org, which offers education, expertise, and information to cultural institutions on preservation and conservation matters, including its Emergency Resource Guide,http://www.ccaha.org/emergency_resource.php
- Heritage Preservation: The National Institute for Conservation,http://www.heritagepreservation.org
- Heritage Emergency National Task Force, http://www.heritageemergency.org, which along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (http://www.fema.gov), sponsors the annual MayDay effort to protect collections from disasters
- Lyrasis, http://www.lyrasis.org
Alliance for Response
PALCI supports the development of Alliance for Response networks among its member libraries. These include, whenever possible, lending time and energy to the AFR Pittsburgh and AFR Philadelphia efforts, as well as encouraging the formation of alliances in other parts of the PALCI region.
Disaster supply cache for Pittsburgh
For 2011-2012, PALCI on behalf of Alliance for Response Pittsburgh has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to help develop a disaster supply cache for Pittsburgh-area cultural heritage organizations, and to provide training in the use of these supplies.
After successful completion of this project for the Pittsburgh region, PALCI hopes to be able to duplicate the project in other parts of our service region.
You can view a copy of the grant, the budget, and proposed supply list here.
Disaster plans
PALCI libraries are encouraged to share their disaster and emergency preparedness plans with their fellow member libraries. Plans are posted here in electronic format; printed copies are also filed at PALCI headquarters for safe-keeping.
MayDay
PALCI supports the Heritage Emergency National Task Force's efforts at promoting MayDay activities for disaster preparedness. You can find out more about PALCI's activities for MayDay here.
Disaster preparedness training
For the 2009-2010, PALCI conducted 6 regional disaster preparedness training sessions throughout Pennsylvania.
For more information about this initiative, please click here.
For more information, please contact:
- John Barnett (email: barnett@palci.org; telephone: 412-247-4130)
Shared Print Archive
PALCI is finalizing the development of a distributed print journal archive, initially focusing on the shared storage and maintenance of commonly held science journals readily available through electronic resources. At present, these include journals published by the American Chemical Society (ACS), the American Institute of Physics (AIP), and the American Physical Society (APS).
This archive would be distributed among interested PALCI libraries, guaranteeing access to the print editions of key journals for an initial period of 10 years, allowing other libraries to withdraw duplicate holdings yet have access to the print editions as needed.
More information about this project can be found here.
To participate in this project or for more detailed inquiries not answered here, please contact:
- Christine Roysdon, Director of Library Collections and Systems, Lehigh University (email: cmr0@lehigh.edu)
- Sharon Wiles-Young, Director of Library Access Services, Lehigh University (email:slw0@lehigh.edu)
- John Barnett (email: barnett@palci.org; telephone: 412-247-4130)
E-Book Collections
PALCI is currently making available electronic resource offers from three e-book vendor platforms, as well as a number of e-book publishers. (See the Electronic Resources Offers section of our website for more information.)
PALCI is also exploring the development of a shared e-book collection among member libraries.
For more information or to participate in this project, please contact John Barnett (email:Barnett@palci.org; telephone: 412-247-4130).
You can see the results of PALCI's e-book survey below. The survey was conducted from September 10 through October 1, 2008. Some 71 PALCI members responded to the survey with 63% expressing interest in the development of a consortial e-book collection.
SurveySummary_10092008 – PDF-File, 47.4 KB