Orbis Cascade Alliance:a brief introductionJohn 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

Cohort 1Linfield CollegePacific UniversityWestern Washington UniversityUniversity of WashingtonMarylhurst UniversityWillamette University

Hooray!

37 MembersPrivate & Public Colleges, Universities, Community Colleges in 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

Orbis Cascade AllianceCentral 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

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

History of Orbis and Cascade

Committees and Teams

Older structure = “Committee”ChairSteering Team (~7)Member (37)Working groups

Examples• CDMC• NWDA

Newer structure = “Team”ChairTeam Members (~7)Representative (37)Working groups

Examples• SPOT• CTST• SILS IT (several working groups

with representatives to each)Task Force – limited durationInterest Group – self-forming, minimal support

Yes, it is time to rethink all this.

See Committees on the Web

ServicesProgram or Service Core = Required Optional Available to non-

members

Shared ILS

Summit

Courier ER – Databases Individual purchases ER -- Ejournals Individual purchases

ER – Ebooks Individual purchases ER – Ebook Demand Driven

Conferences Some

NWDA Strategic AgendaTo be determined in July 2013

1993OhioLINK & IIIOrbis, Cascade (INN-Reach = proprietary)

2003Orbis Cascade Alliance merge and create Summit (INN-Reach = proprietary)

2008Summit moves to WorldCat Navigator (more standards based, but also screen scrape & kluge)

2013-2015Shared ILS will include functionality that replaces WorldCat NavigatorSummit moves towards standards (hooray!)Summit will be based on WorldCat Navigator until all are migrated.

Strategic Agenda

• Guides investments for Alliance and members– People– Time– Money

• 5 year cycle with regular updates

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

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

FAQ

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”

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.

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. John Lynn Merrill

Who thought of the name “Orbis?” Did it stand for ORegon Bibliographic Information Service?

Alice Allen thought of the name, Orbis = circle, emblem of changeIt was never an acronym or spelled in all caps except in the logo.

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 =

“oobie doobie”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Local organization acronym fun (LOAF) ... how many can you identify?

ORBISICCLOUSOSSHECLPWSCLPLMDCOCCLANAPCUORCAPORTALSWINGWLABig12+LiLi

= 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

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

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

Q/A

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