Collaborative collection development is the cornerstone of the CBB Library Consortium. From the standardization of reciprocal borrowing privileges in 1977, to the completion, in 2010, of the CBB Mellon Collaborative Collection Development Grant resulting in a combined approval plan, through today’s consortial purchasing of electronic resources, our collaborations have broadened and deepened the collections available to our campuses. The implementation of a unified online catalog, CBBcat, in 2014, has streamlined the discovery, accessibility, and delivery of these rich collections. Together, we work to leverage our budgets and space to provide exceptionally extensive resources to our communities, where our combined acquisitions exceed what any one of us could acquire individually. Our students and faculty benefit enormously from this collaboration and the breadth of resources available to them.
The CBB Collection Development Committee, usually composed of two members from each library, oversees the consortium’s collection development activities. The chair rotates annually and serves as the group’s contact for that year.
| Colby | Karen Gillum | kigillum@colby.edu |
| Colby | Mike McGuire | mike.mcguire@colby.edu |
| Colby | Ana Noriega | anoriega@colby.edu |
| Bates | Laura Conforte | lconfort@bates.edu |
| Bates | Marianne Williams | mwillia8@bates.edu |
| Bates | Krystie Wilfong | kwilfong@bates.edu |
| Bowdoin | Karen Anctil | kanctil@bowdoin.edu |
| Bowdoin | Tim Morton (Chair) | t.morton@bowdoin.edu |
| Bowdoin | Sue O’Dell | sodell@bowdoin.edu |
Working with the CBB Collection Development Committee is a team of subject liaisons composed of librarians across the three libraries. These liaisons focus on building the collections, both in print and electronic, in specific subject and curricular areas. Regular communication among the liaisons is encouraged and an annual “liaison summit” is held to review where we are and to identify new collections initiatives.
In our effort to build a rich combined collection, while recognizing individual campus needs, we follow the guidelines below in our cooperative collections endeavors:
- We seek to reduce unnecessary duplication of most monographs among the three libraries, which frees up money to purchase unique materials for the combined collection.
- We do duplicate monographs whenever necessary, primarily for reserves, reference, and those heavily used in courses.
- We prefer to purchase or subscribe to electronic resources as a consortium, providing access to all three schools.
- We will purchase or subscribe to electronic resources individually when curricular demands differ.