Our memberships in the following library organizations reflect the many ways that collaboration and collective investment extend what we can accomplish on our own.
Some memberships give us access to cooperative purchasing and licensing opportunities that make resources available to us that would otherwise be beyond our means. Others provide professional development, networking venues, and opportunities to contribute to and lead the broader library profession. Still others connect us to large-scale collaborative initiatives with projects whose impact depends on the participation and contributions of many institutions.
Taken together, these memberships expand our access to resources, strengthen our professional community, and enable us to participate in work that is greater than any one library could undertake alone.
ALA
The American Library Association (ALA) is the largest professional association for the library industry globally. ALA provides members with different resources to advance librarians’ careers, such as educational materials and programs, networking opportunities, and reporting on latest library trends. ALA even puts together free advocacy resources that help all library professionals protect everyone’s right to intellectual freedom.
APTrust
Academic Preservation Trust (APTrust) is a consortium of institutions that utilize and help upkeep a preservation repository for digital content. This repository, which is physically located at the University of Virginia, relies on its members' expertise to create preservation solutions for their digital materials. Members have access to redundant cloud storage for their digital assets, which ensures the long-term accessibility of these materials.
CLIR
The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) is an independent, nonprofit organization focused on improving research and learning environments at a variety of institutions, such as museums, libraries, and colleges. The over 180 institutions that are members of CLIR, together implement solutions to problems across industries to increase the compatibility of information resources.
CRL
The Center for Research Libraries (CRL) is a network of research, college, and university libraries that share resources and uplift original research. Member institutions together build shared digital and physical collections in an effort to address patrons’ research needs. As a member, Occidental has access to these extensive collections and to collection development resources.
HathiTrust
HathiTrust is a not-for-profit group of academic and research libraries that maintain a collection of 19 million digitized items from contributing institutions. HathiTrust aims to collect and preserve a comprehensive record of human knowledge in one place. Anyone can view uncopyrighted books and publications available on the HathiTrust Digital Library.
LOEX
The Library Orientation Exchange (LOEX) is an educational clearinghouse focused on library instruction and information literacy. LOEX has extensive collections of resources on library instruction, hosts an annual conference, and releases a quarterly publication. LOEX offers continued professional development for library personnel especially within the space of information literacy.
Lyrasis
Lyrasis is a nonprofit organization that provides content services, supports open source software, and facilitates community discussion surrounding technology for libraries, archives, and museums. As a member of Lyrasis, ºù«Ӱҵ Library has access to Lyrasis’s collection of learning materials, Lyrasis grant opportunities, and professional forums with other member institutions.
Oberlin Group
The Oberlin Group is a consortium of liberal arts college and small university libraries that would like to share knowledge about their unique services and challenges. The Oberlin Group hosts annual meetings where member institutions can discuss vendor contracts, interlibrary lending agreements, open access initiatives, and more.
SPARC
The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) is an international alliance of over 230 academic and research libraries and organizations founded in 1998 to fix market dysfunction in scholarly communication. SPARC supports vendor negotiations, privacy initiatives, and provides publishing guidance for academic institutions.
SCELC
The Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC) is a group of small medical, academic, and research libraries that facilitate resource sharing among their network. Through SCELC, ºù«Ӱҵ Library has access to collections from over 200 institutions nationwide. SCELC also facilitates electronic resource licensing for member institutions, including ºù«Ӱҵ Library.
WEST
Western Regional Storage Trust (WEST) is a print journal repository serving academic and research libraries in the Western United States. Institutions involved in WEST have access to a shared print journal archive, allowing libraries to consolidate their existing collections and free up space on campus. This combined collection of materials is housed across various member institutions and is collaboratively managed.