Orbis Cascade Alliance: a brief introduction John F. Helmer, ED History Committee structure

1. Orbis Cascade Alliance: • a brief introduction • John F. Helmer, ED • History • Committee structure • Services • Summit in a bit more detail • Chris Shaffer, Chair-elect • Strategic Agenda • Council, Board, and Staff • What to expect in July • FAQ • Q/A

2. Hooray! Cohort 1 Linfield College Pacific University Western Washington University University of Washington Marylhurst University Willamette University

3. Central Oregon Comm. College Central Washington University Chemeketa Community College Clark College Concordia University Eastern Oregon University Eastern Washington University George Fox University Lane Community College Lewis & Clark College Linfield College Mt. Hood Community College Oregon State University Oregon Health & Science Univ. Oregon Institute of Technology Oregon State University Pacific University Portland Community College Portland State University Orbis Cascade Alliance Reed College Saint Martin’s University Seattle Pacific University Seattle University Southern Oregon University The Evergreen State College University of Idaho University of Oregon University of Portland University of Puget Sound University of Washington Walla Walla College Warner Pacific College Washington State University Western Oregon University Western Washington University Whitman College Willamette University 37 MembersPrivate & Public Colleges, Universities, Community Collegesin Oregon, Washington, and Idaho Serving 280 colleges, universities, archives, museums in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Hawaii, and Utah Non-profit corporation, 8 staff, no central funding, 20 years in Sept ‘13

4. History of Orbis and Cascade

5. Committees and Teams • Older structure = “Committee” • Chair • Steering Team (~7) • Member (37) • Working groups • Examples • CDMC • NWDA • Newer structure = “Team” • Chair • Team Members (~7) • Representative (37) • Working groups • Examples • SPOT • CTST • SILS IT (several working groups with representatives to each) Task Force – limited duration Interest Group – self-forming, minimal support Yes, it is time to rethink all this.

6. See Committees on the Web

7. Services

8. 1993 OhioLINK & III Orbis, Cascade (INN-Reach = proprietary) 2003 Orbis Cascade Alliance merge and create Summit (INN-Reach = proprietary) 2008 Summit moves to WorldCat Navigator (more standards based, but also screen scrape & kluge) 2013-2015 Shared ILS will include functionality that replaces WorldCat Navigator Summit moves towards standards (hooray!) Summit will be based on WorldCat Navigator until all are migrated.

9. Strategic Agenda • Guides investments for Alliance and members • People • Time • Money • 5 year cycle with regular updates

10. Council, Board, and Staff • Council • Decision making body – one library, one vote • Consensus model where practical • Meets in-person three times per year • Board • Members elected by Council • Sets agendas • Makes appointments • Staff • Managed by Executive Director • Serves both coordination and implementation roles • Work is significantly supplemented by member library staff

11. What to expect in July • Culmination of year long process • Full participation by Council, Staff, and Committee/Team Chairs • Expected outcome is a Strategic Agenda document with initiatives, vision statements, and objectives, not a list of projects

12. FAQ

13. Who started Cascade? • ICCL started Cascade as program of the WSCLP, first as a locally developed union catalog, later as an INN-Reach system. • ICCL = Inter-institutional Council of Chief Librarians, directors of Washington’s public baccalaureate degree granting institutions • WSCLP = Washington State Cooperative Library Project, sometimes just “CLP”

14. What was the founding Orbis grant called? Expanding Public Access to Library Resources: the Technical Services Center and the Union Catalog (May 1993), Meyer Memorial Trust. Primary authors were UO’s Alice Allen & Andrew Bonamici.

15. Did the early Orbis and Cascade founders know they were creating a consortium? Yes, early notes show discussion of governance, growth, expansion of services, and membership criteria. Lynn Merrill John

16. Who thought of the name “Orbis?” Did it stand for ORegon Bibliographic Information Service? Alice Allen thought of the name, Orbis = circle, emblem of change It was never an acronym or spelled in all caps except in the logo.

17. What were some early hot (or fun) contender for the name of Orbis? • OrLink … some kind of breakfast sausage? • ORangutan… “see the monkey for your research needs” • CATapult … “launching you in to a new realm of information” • Orbison after Roy Orbison … catch phrase = “oobiedoobie”

18. Were Orbis and Cascade systems or consortia? Were they competitors?  Why did they merge? Not competitors … they worked together on both union catalog and electronic resources projects from the beginning. A key ICCL decision was to participate in the existing courier system rather starting a new system. Merger allowed for economies of scale (lower membership fees), increased capacity, and gave us a chance to draw on the best of both.

19. When did the ER program start? Both Orbis and WSCLP were exploring group ER purchasing in the late 1990’s: Tim Jewell (UW) for WSCLP and Deb Carver (UO) for Orbis. Deb, Tim, and John Helmer all attended the first meeting of ICOLC (then COC) in 1997 and that experience really gave the ER programs a big push. A bit later Debi Place (then Baker) started to support and organize the Orbis ER program. Greg Doyle, long a member of the Orbis ER Committee, came on board as the Alliance’s ER Program Manager in 2003, shortly after the merger.

20. Where did INN-Reach come from and what was it? Developed for OhioLINK by III. Orbis was the second installation. In fact the product had no name when negotiation began and when Orbis first came up, the screen said OhioLINK! John, Nancy, Shirien Chappell (then Stevens) (UO), and Jim Kopp (chair, then at UP) all traveled to Ohio to share information with OhioLINK staff.

21. What's with the name "Orbis Cascade Alliance?“ Suggested by Patricia Cutright during merger discussions. It was comfortable, familiar, and politically wise to use the brands of both successful consortia.

22. Legend has it that there were two courier melt downs.  What's with that and why is Lynn Chmelir responsible for our courier program?  • CMD1, 1998: WSL started an early version but then libraries weren’t watching and a vendor had difficulty running it. When informed of the emergency, Chair Lynn Chmelir (Linfield) instructed John and Nancy to “make it better.” Orbis hosted a stakeholders meeting at Multnomah County Library and has been in the business ever since. • CMD2: Pony Express changed its line of work. They decided to sort and deliver bulk-mail instead of delivering packages … less than one week notice. Members used UPS ($$) while we found a new vendor.

23. What happened with III and why the breakneck migration from INNReach to WCNavigator? III said they were unhappy with lack of sales of new products and “sketchy” comments at NWIUG. In negotiation, member libraries work with OCLC to help develop WCLocal also emerged as an issue. With six-month notice, III announced a new business model that would require that the Alliance give up ownership (move to a service model) and pay a 700% increase in price. The Alliance launched a three part response: negotiation, communication, investigation. After much work, III still required a 600% price increase. Council elected to purchase a six-month maintenance extension with III and enter in to a develop partnership with OCLC to develop a new product based on VDX (a Fretwell Downing ILL system) and including a “Circulation Gateway” system to interface with Millennium. The new system was eventually named WorldCat Navigator and all 36 member libraries made the jump on December 1, 2008. Beyond our area, WC Navigator is now in use by consortia in Boston, California, Florida, and Texas.

24. Where did the current Strategic Agenda come from and did speed dating and a screaming monkey really play a role? • 2008 discussion and polling yielded many ideas. • Executive Committee condensed this very broad input to 18 initiatives. • Speed dating (quick presentations of all 18 initiatives by Council members) and more EC work winnowed 18 down to 5. John Popko and his screaming monkey toy played a role as timekeeper for speed dating. • Council met in a facilitated retreat in February 2009 to finalize the Strategic Agenda

25. Local organization acronym fun (LOAF) ... how many can you identify? = Orbis! = Interinstitutional Council of Chief Librarians = Oregon University System = Oregon State System of Higher Education = Cooperative Library Project = Washington Cooperative Library Project = Library Media and Directors’ Council = Oregon Community College Library Association = Northwest Association of Colleges and Universities = Orbis Cascade Alliance = Portland Area Library System = Washington Idaho Network = Greater Western Library Alliance = Big12+ = Libraries Linking Idaho ORBIS ICCL OUS OSSHE CLP WSCLP LMDC OCCLA NAPCU ORCA PORTALS WIN GWLA Big12+ LiLi

26. Why does the use of “OCA” make some cringe?

27. Why does the use of “Alliance” make some cringe?

29. Q/A?