Rosemont Shared Print Alliance Update
June 2023
The Rosemont Shared Print Alliance is a collaboration of regional shared print journal programs that coordinate their efforts on a larger scale to ensure the retention of and access to print journal backfiles. Current participants include the Big Ten Academic Alliance, the Center for Research Libraries, the Eastern Academic Scholars’ Trust, the Florida Academic Repository, Scholars Trust, and the Western Regional Storage Trust. The following provides an update on work undertaken by the Rosemont Alliance since our last report to PAN in January 2023.
Potential for Integrating National Shared Print Efforts
The Rosemont Shared Print Alliance, with its focus on serials, has worked alongside the monographs-focused Partnership for Shared Book Collections since 2018. Although these organizations differ in key ways, including business models and organizational structures, they also share significant overlap in membership, goals, mission, and needs. In 2022 both organizations agreed to evaluate the possibility of merging the organizations into a new collaboration that would serve the needs of both monographs and serials while dispersing demands on staff, reducing redundancy of efforts, and maximizing the shared pool of labor and knowledge.
In April 2023, the Joint Rosemont–Partnership Task Force for Future Strategic Consolidation recommended the two organizations merge, noting “a single coordinating organization supports the missions of both extant organizations more effectively and sustainably than dividing resources.” This recommendation has been supported by the governing boards of each organization and affirmed by the member programs of each. On the afternoon of Friday, June 23, leaders from each organization will meet for a half-day summit meeting to discuss the scope, mission, and options for business models for future, combined operations. It is hoped the merger can be completed by the next PAN Meeting in January 2024.
Current Activities
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With the new year, the committee chairs rotated. The Operations Committee chair was assumed by John Burger of Scholars Trust/ASERL; the Executive Committee chair is currently Greg Eow of the Center for Research Libraries.
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The Operations Committee has updated its 2023 Task List. With the potential for major restructuring on the horizon and program staff adjusting to the full return from pandemic disruptions, the work plan for the year focuses on maintaining ongoing tasks including communications, recording and reporting retained titles, and collaborating with the larger shared print community. Additionally, key areas of strategic focus for the year include:
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Supporting the merger task force;
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Shared print metadata and disclosure;
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Title-level gap filling processes;
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Increasing collection redundancy; and
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Communication and advocacy.
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The Rosemont Alliance continues to be active in shared print initiatives, participating in the ongoing conversations with the California Digital Library, Center for Research Libraries, and HathiTrust Shared Print Collaboration (CCH) and in joint planning activities with the Partnership for Shared Book Collections (Partnership).
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The Rosemont Alliance has also continued to work in Gap Filling, developing potential pathways and guidance for participants in the shared print community seeking to fill missing volumes in retained titles. This group’s work remains in progress.
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Further work in the areas of access and collection growth, specifically in planned redundancy of collections to ensure multiple copies of retained titles, has been planned. However, these efforts are momentarily on hold while pending merger conversations take priority.
Current Collaborative Efforts
Metadata and Disclosure
Emerging from a previous unaffiliated Shared Print Metadata Group, a joint working group of Rosemont and Partnership volunteers was charged with discussing relevant changes needed to metadata to support shared print needs; maintaining and disseminating updates to shared print guidelines, terminology documents, and other relevant resources; and ensuring alignment among Best Practices, actions terminology, and metadata guidelines. The group’s first task is to review Share Print Actions terms and recommend a standardized set of preservation and retention action terms, which is ongoing.
Multi-Part Monographs
Similarly, an Ad Hoc Task Force for Multi-Part Monographs and Monographic Series combined the expertise of the Rosemont Shared Print Alliance and the Partnership for Shared Book Collections to explore issues related to cataloging, analyzing, retaining, and disclosing titles issued in multiple or continuing parts. This task force has identified key issues to examine and sought input from both organizations regarding desired outcomes, communication channels, and scope.
For documentation and additional information, please visit RosemontSharedPrintAlliance.org.