WESTinfo
July 2019 Newsletter
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With summer, WEST wraps up its eighth archiving cycle and launches right into the ninth! Over the next few months, WEST will be rolling out new developments for the program’s in-house tool: AGUA. Several of those developments will support
upcoming collections analysis and the submission of member holdings data – stay tuned! At the end of June, WEST members gathered during the ALA Annual conference to hear program updates and engage with a panel of WEST members on the value of shared print.
Read on for more details on that and other WEST news.
Please follow the links below to check out the full posts on the WESTinfo blog.
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WEST Member Survey for 2019 Program Assessment and Strategic Planning: WEST has made a practice of engaging in program assessment and strategic planning approximately every three years. This year, WEST has launched its
third program assessment, the results of which will inform strategic planning undertaken by the WEST Executive Committee and Operations and Collections Council. As part of the 2019 WEST Program Assessment, the project team and governance groups have developed
and launched a membership-wide survey to gather feedback on current activities and potential future directions for WEST. The survey was distributed on June 17th to WEST Primary Contacts and WEST Directors. The survey is scheduled to close at the end of Monday,
July 22nd. The response rate has been very good. If you are a WEST Primary Contact or WEST Director, but have not received an invitation to complete the survey, please check your email spam or junk folders. You can also contact WEST’s program manager, Alison
Wohlers, at [log in to unmask] to resend the invitation. Read on for more information
about WEST program assessment.
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Why WEST? Members Discuss the Value and Future of WEST and Shared Print during the WEST Member Meeting at ALA Annual 2019:
On Sunday, June 23rd, WEST members, and colleagues from other shared print programs, gathered for WEST’s biannual member meeting. The highlight of the meeting was indisputably a panel discussion by members exploring the value of WEST, shared print in general,
and the future of these collaborations. The panel was moderated by WEST Executive Committee chair, Michael Levine-Clark of University of Denver and included an array of perspectives among the panelists. Lorrie McAllister, Associate University Librarian for
Collections Services and Analysis at Arizona State University, hailed from one of WEST’s six Archive Builders. Lorrie has also been leading a multi-year, grant project at ASU funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to “reinvent the library’s strategy and
practice for open-stack print collections.” Panelist Curt Asher, Dean of Libraries for California State University, Bakersfield, contributed his perspective as the most recent member to join WEST and discussed the reasons for actively participating in a shared
print program. Finally, Rick Burke, the Executive Director of the Statewide Electronic Licensing Consortium (SCELC), brought a consortial perspective to bear on the conversation, distinguished by SCELC’s extensive facilitation of shared services and development
of a shared print program of their own for monographs. Please read
on for a summary of the questions and discussion that ensued. If you would like to hear more, a recording of the second half of the discussion is available
here.
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WEST Shared Print Analyst to Start August 1!
We are excited to announce the successful recruitment of WEST’s next Shared Print Operations and Collections Analyst, Anna Striker! Anna’s first day is August 1, 2019. Anna comes to WEST from her position as Stacks Services Supervisor at Georgetown University
Libraries where she demonstrated a talent for initiating, planning, and coordinating large-scale, complex, cross-departmental projects including a full inventory of her library’s circulating collection. She brings a unique perspective of stacks management
and data-driven collection maintenance to the position, as well as experience supporting Georgetown’s participation in the Scholars Trust shared print program. Anna received her BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Virginia and anticipates
completing her MLIS at San José State University later this year. We could not be more excited to bring her on board!
All the best,
The WEST Project Team
Do you have a topic you would like to read about in WEST blog posts and the newsletter? Are you interested in writing a guest blog post on your work with WEST or shared print in general? Please let us know! Email Alison Wohlers at
[log in to unmask].