OCUL Collaborative Futures - moving forward to Phase 3

  • Posted on: 12 April 2017
  • By: Anika
On February 27, 2017, the OCUL Directors received the Business Plan for the Collaborative Futures project. The Business Plan contains information about potential costs and governance for a shared LSP, as well as summaries of system options and a draft version of the MOU. Considering this information in conjunction with local needs and priorities, each Director has indicated whether their library wishes to proceed with Phase 3 of the project, namely, procurement and implementation of a shared Library Services Platform (LSP).

 
The following 13 institutions have elected to participate in Phase 3:

  • Algoma University
  • Brock University
  • Carleton University
  • University of Guelph
  • Lakehead University
  • UOIT
  • University of Ottawa
  • Queen’s University
  • Trent University
  • University of Waterloo
  • Western University
  • Wilfrid Laurier University
  • York University

About the Project

OCUL is developing a new strategy to guide the future of library management systems in Ontario’s academic libraries. The Collaborative Futures project aims to maximize the existing expertise and resources of OCUL members while fostering a deeper and more comprehensive collaborative venture among Ontario’s academic libraries.
 
The Collaborative Futures project offers OCUL member institutions a number of opportunities for information technology management, sharing, preservation, and collaboration:

  • Provide a common platform for discovery of scholarly resources and collections
  • Perform common business practices and services at a network level, allowing individual libraries to focus on unique needs and services
  • Share expertise across the province
  • Manage E-Resources
  • Manage and preserve print collections

 Collaborative Futures has three phases, all of which OCUL member institutions can choose to participate in as the project progresses. The success of Collaborative Futures is not premised on full participation by all OCUL libraries, and the initiative can proceed with an early adopter core for Phases Two and Three, with others joining later as they wish.
 

More Information

For general information visit ocul.on.ca/projects/collaborative-futures.
 
Further information about the project is available to staff at OCUL member libraries via the Collaborative Futures SPOTdocs wiki space.

Contact

OCUL Executive Director, John Barnett  john.barnett [at] ocul.on.ca