Overview
What this is: A coordinated, approval-plan–anchored acquisition program in which CRL serves as buyer of record and long-term steward for selected monographic materials on behalf of its members. The program uses standard vendor workflows (e.g., GOBI, Casalini) and aggregates member-defined selection priorities, while placing custody, metadata creation, preservation, and access services at CRL. For members, this reduces both the up-front purchasing burden and ongoing costs of stewardship for these materials.
Intended outcomes / Steady state: A renewable, multi-profile program that captures under-collected, international, small-press, and otherwise at-risk scholarly output at scale. All CRL members receive access. CRL provides baseline funding to ensure continuity of acquisitions in GCC-aligned areas. Member contributions extend, deepen, or accelerate collecting in specific profiles, including areas outside the GCCs; CRL manages vendor relationships, acquisition, ingest, metadata, and stewardship. Over time, this establishes a reliable, member-directed pipeline of shared acquisitions.
How it relates: Advances CRL’s mission to collect and steward the record of human expression in partnership with its members, and directly supports the Strategic Framework priorities of Coordinating Collections and Content, Increasing Resilience, and Unifying Services and Stewardship. The program complements Global Collections Committees (GCCs) by providing a scalable, operational mechanism for sustained acquisitions aligned with member-led priorities.
Problem or opportunity statement
Libraries consistently identify more scholarly material worth collecting than they can sustainably acquire, house, and steward locally. Traditional shared-purchase models reduce up-front acquisition costs but leave long-term custody, preservation, and service obligations concentrated in a small number of institutions, creating fragility when budgets, staffing, or storage capacity fluctuate.
CRL is purpose-built to absorb and stabilize these risks. By acting as buyer of record and permanent steward within a large member network, CRL lowers both the cost and the uncertainty of collective collecting. The opportunity is to convert existing approval-plan infrastructure—already familiar to acquisitions staff—into a resilient, network-scale collecting mechanism that ensures coverage in collecting areas members care about, without requiring any single library to bear full acquisition or stewardship responsibility.
Practical Example(s)
Shared approval plan (Core model).
A group of members commits modest recurring contributions to support a defined approval profile (e.g., small-press African literature monographs). CRL establishes and manages the approval plan as buyer of record, maintains the vendor relationship, and handles invoicing, claims, ingest, metadata creation, and long-term stewardship. All CRL members receive access; contributing members shape and refine the profile and participate in structured feedback loops.
Disapproval / Unmet-Demand Signal
Participating members may optionally share data on titles or slips flagged as desirable but unaffordable or out-of-scope for local acquisition. CRL aggregates these signals as an advisory input stream—not an automatic purchase queue—to inform shared acquisitions. For vendors, this documents unmet demand and creates a second opportunity for sales that would otherwise be lost; for members, it provides a mechanism to cover known gaps without distorting local collection decisions.
GCC-aligned subsidies and matching funds.
Global Collections Committees inform profile development in priority regions or genres. CRL allocates common-pool collections funds to establish a baseline level of collecting in these areas. Member contributions expand or accelerate acquisitions within specific profiles. Where appropriate, CRL may use designated common-pool funds to provide matching or time-limited subsidies, reinforcing member-led priorities without creating differentiated access.
Implementation and Development
Implementation Requirements
People:
- CRL acquisitions and metadata staff; CRL serves as plan owner and buyer of record.
- Designation of an acquisitions lead and targeted training in vendor approval platforms. A robust version of this program could justify additional staffing.
- Small member advisory group for profile definition and adjustment.
Technology & Systems:
- Integration with standard vendor approval platforms (e.g., GOBI, Casalini).
- Automated feeds into CRL cataloging and ingest workflows.
- Lightweight dashboard for participating selectors to review profile performance and unmet-demand signals.
Space & Stewardship:
- Use of CRL’s existing preservation facility for scalable physical growth at low per-item cost.
- Digital access via existing CRL platforms and digitization-on-demand workflows.
Pitfalls / Go–No-Go Criteria:
Insufficient member participation across multiple cycles to meet minimum vendor thresholds.
- Cost escalation beyond collective affordability.
- Profiles requiring specialization that cannot be supported cost-effectively.
- Failure to demonstrate clear member value (renewal rates, usage patterns, advisory engagement) after pilot phase.
- If member participation falls below a define sustainability threshold after two consecutive cycles, will be reviewed for restructuring or sunset through a transparent process.
Development Process
Discovery Phase (3–4 months):
- Survey members on priority areas, contribution levels, and appetite for shared risk.
- Consult vendors on feasible, cross-institutional approval profiles and data feeds.
Pilot (Year 1):
- Launch 1–2 profiles in fields where need and feasibility are clearest (e.g., Latin American humanities; small-press social sciences).
- Test acquisition workflows, metadata throughput, and access patterns.
Evaluation & Scaling (Year 2):
- Refine profiles and integrate unmet-demand signals.
- Introduce GCC-aligned subsidies or matching funds.
Steady State (Year 3+):
- Multi-profile program with transparent reporting, predictable annual costs, and alignment with CRL’s strategic collecting priorities.
Governance and Oversight
Operationally led by CRL Collections Acquisitions and Licensing, with Collections Access and Technology advisory on requirements to provide access (e.g. metadata and shelf-ready standards) and space availability. Program direction and profile priorities guided by an advisory group appointed through the Collections and Services Committee, with representation from relevant Global Collections Committees. Annual assessment incorporated into CRL’s regular reporting on shared acquisitions and access patterns.