Collections and Services Committee (CSC) Charge – July 2025
Purpose and Strategic Role
The Collections and Services Committee (CSC) serves as a strategic body charged with aligning CRL’s collections and content services with the consortium’s overarching mission, vision, and strategic priorities. CSC provides critical guidance to the Board and senior leadership to ensure that CRL’s investments and programs are positioned to support scholarly research and long-term stewardship of knowledge resources.
CSC plays a central role in translating the aspirations of CRL’s member community into actionable priorities, ensuring that all initiatives reflect a shared commitment to sustainability, equity, and impact.
Key Responsibilities
- Strategic Alignment: Develop policy and programmatic recommendations that directly support CRL’s strategic plan and reinforce its role as a leader in building a distributed, equitable, and resilient scholarly infrastructure.
- Collections Leadership: Recommend priorities for content development and stewardship—acquisition, digitization, licensing, negotiation, and preservation—that respond to member-identified research needs and global scholarly trends.
- Resource Allocation: Advise on and evaluate funding priorities for collections, access services, licensing, and supporting infrastructure—including staffing—guided by principles of transparency, impact, and member value.
- Awareness and Advocacy: Advise on the development and review of initiatives that increase access to and visibility of materials including CRL support for research & instruction, to ensure alignment with CRL’s strategic and operational commitment.
- Committee Activation: Convene time-limited working groups or task forces per bylaws and parliamentary process as appropriate, including non-director member representatives at the committee’s discretion, to address opportunities and challenges within CRL’s content and service landscape.
Composition and Membership
- Chair: Appointed Board member to provide strategic continuity by serving a one year as Vice Chair followed by one year as Chair, for a total appointment of two years.
- Board Liaison / Vice Chair: Appointed Board member to provide strategic continuity by serving a one year as Vice Chair followed by one year as Chair, for a total appointment of two years.
- Members: Seven members representing a diverse spectrum of CRL institutions and expertise, appointed for staggered 3-year terms (renewable once), per processes outlined in bylaw and governance committee manual.
- Ex Officio Members: One to two members of CRL’s leadership team to provide operational continuity, appointed in staggered 3-year terms (renewable).
Operational Framework
- Meeting Cadence: Quarterly meetings, with additional sessions convened as needed.
- Reporting Structure: Recommendations and reports are submitted by the Committee Chair to the CRL Board as a standing agenda item at regular meetings and incidentally through normal parliamentary procedures.
- Staff Support: Provided by CRL as needed.
- Established under Article VII, Section 3 of the CRL Bylaws (as amended May 19, 2025)
- Standing Advisory Committee to the CRL Board
- See also the CRL Governance Manual for guidance on process and parliamentary procedure
Document Information
Document Title: Collections and Services Committee (CSC) Strategic Charge
Effective Date: (approved at Board Meeting, July 18, 2025) Last Revision Date: July 05, 2025
Responsible Party: Board of Directors
Policy Purpose and Scope: To charge the Collections and Services Committee as a standing strategic advisory committee under Article VII, Section 3 of the CRL Bylaws (as amended May 19, 2025)