As part of the 2CUL vision (http://2cul.org/node/17), Columbia and Cornell University Libraries strive to merge their respective core operations by 2015. In an effort to find mutual grounds for collaboration around E-Books, a small cross institutional task force, with members from collection development, access services and technical services was formed in June 2011. The TF was charged to investigate the wide spectrum of issues surrounding eBooks at Cornell and Columbia and recommend steps that 2CUL should take to improve e-book access and management, and to propose an organizational framework that will ensure continued monitoring of these issues and appropriate action.
A year later, the task force has finalized its preliminary recommendations. In this presentation the two co-chairs of the TF (Colleen Major from Columbia and Boaz Nadav-Manes from Cornell) will focus on the Task Force’s efforts to examine local E-Book licensing, acquisition, and management work-flows; the ways we identified procedures and operations that can be streamlined and integrated as we move closer towards the goal of joint management of electronic resources; and describe the ways we have partnered with faculty and vendors (MUSE and JSTOR) to look at collaboration in a consensual, forward looking, perspectives. The presenters will provide a brief background of the 2CUL collaboration, an overview of our varied local practices, workflow environments and systems used to support the life cycle of an E-Book. We will speak to our institutional similarities and differences, and areas that have been identified from which we can build a stronger collaboration. The presenters will also provide a checklist of useful things to take into account as other institutions follow similar paths.