Boston Library Consortium

For Librarians and Library Staff

The Boston Library Consortium offers services to librarians and staff at member libraries ranging from resource sharing and e-resource licensing to professional development and programming on issues of importance to academic and research libraries.

For Students, Scholars & Researchers

Those affiliated with the Full Member libraries of the Boston Library Consortium can take advantage of access to and borrowing of materials from these libraries.

Our Members

Williams College
Northeastern University
Brandeis University
Boston University
University of Massachusetts Lowell
Wesleyan University
Wellesley College
State Library of Massachusetts
Boston College
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Marine Biological Laboratory and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
University of New Hampshire
University of Massachusetts Boston
University of Rhode Island
Internet Archive
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
University of Connecticut
Bentley University
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Tufts University

CDL Co-Op Releases Statement on Using Controlled Digital Lending as a Mechanism for Interlibrary Loan

Boston Library Consortium joins other consortia, libraries, organizations, and individuals to endorse the CDL Co-Op 'Statement on Using Controlled Digital Lending as a Mechanism for Interlibrary Loan'.

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Cover of 'Consortial CDL: Implementing Controlled Digital Lending as a Mechanism for Interlibrary Loan'

Boston Library Consortium to implement controlled digital lending for interlibrary loan

New report released as resource for other libraries and consortia

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Member Events

October 22, 2021

Webinar

BLC Business Librarianship Speaker Series: Not Just for BizRef Experts: Tips and tricks to revitalize your business reference repertoire

Even for the most seasoned librarian, business reference can be a challenge. Industry questions that focus on emerging or niche areas are common, as are queries about what consumers want, both today and years into the future. Patrons often want to know detailed information on a large public company’s internal operations or a small private company’s financials and growth strategy. This workshop will unpack the secrets to bizref success through a combination of activities focused on core business topics as well as some more advanced “pro-tip” strategies for taking full advantage of all potential bizref resources. Additionally, information literacy and teaching and learning tactics will be explored through the lens of business reference. The workshop is designed to get participants to gain new insights into the vibrant bizref ecosystem and build upon existing skills and strengths while having fun and interacting with colleagues.

About Celia Ross:

Celia is a Senior Associate Librarian at the University of Michigan's Ross (no relation) School of Business. She grew up in Stratham, NH where her first job as a teenager was at the Wiggin Memorial Library. She has worked in business reference in a variety of settings, from a small venture capital firm to a global consulting firm and in public and academic libraries. Along the way, she learned many of the skills and techniques she describes in her book, Making Sense of Business Reference. MSBR is now in its second edition and was named an Outstanding Business Reference Source by the American Library Association's (ALA's) Business Reference Sources (BRASS) Committee. She has been teaching ALA's Business Reference 101 online course for over fifteen years to students from across the globe and in 2014 was the recipient of the BRASS Excellence in Business Librarianship award. When she’s not hanging out with her husband (also a librarian) and two daughters, Celia reads (mostly British and other mysteries), runs (super slowly), and gardens (very haphazardly). Ask her about her Chia Pet collection!

About the BLC Business Librarianship Speaker Series:

The Business Series is organized by Business COI member Alison Messier (UMass Amherst) and Co-Chairs Edward Junhao Lim (UConn) and Wendy Pothier (UNH), with financial support from the BLC Innovation Fund. To see the full list of presenters and topics, visit the Series webpage.

November 12, 2021

Webinar

BLC Business Librarianship Speaker Series: Systematic reviews in Business/Management

In this interactive 90-minute workshop, we will cover an introduction to the systematic review process, with a focus on the steps of question formulation, protocol development, searching for studies, and study selection. The session will also cover guidelines and standards, tools and software, and comprehensive searching in EBSCO Business Source Complete database.

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

Describe the steps undertaken when conducting a systematic review
Formulate a narrow focused review question
Determine which databases/sources to search for a given systematic review question
Create a comprehensive search in Business Source Complete database
Differentiate between and describe the purpose of conducting and reporting guidelines
Describe the two stages of screening

About the Presenter:

Dr. Zahra Premji is a Health Research Librarian at the University of Victoria Libraries, in Victoria, BC. Prior to this role, she was a business librarian at the University of Calgary where she developed her competencies in evidence synthesis for Business/Management. She has designed and delivered numerous workshops on systematic reviews to both discipline specific (Medicine, Social Work, Business) and general audiences, including 2 co-facilitated highly attended workshops at Academy of Management conferences in 2020 and 2021. She has also collaborated and co-authored systematic reviews in both business and medicine and has co-instructed a graduate level course on systematic reviews.

About the BLC Business Librarianship Speaker Series:

December 10, 2021

Webinar

BLC Business Librarianship Speaker Series: How to research what doesn't exist (yet): a hands-on workshop for librarians supporting local entrepreneurs

This active learning workshop will consider the scenario of a New England-area entrepreneur opening a business for a local market.Participants will cover four common research needs of entrepreneurs:•industry identification and analysis, •market identification and sizing, •competitive intelligence, and •financial benchmarking. The workshop will focus on free resources, including annual Census demographic and industry data, but will also incorporate a few well-known commercial databases such as DataAxle and SimplyAnalytics.

About the Presenter:

Steve Cramer is the entrepreneurship librarian for UNC Greensboro, an urban, social mobility campus at which social entrepreneurship and cross-campus (ex. arts) entrepreneurship are particularly popular. He also serves as a Coleman Fellow for Entrepreneurship Education and a co-chair of the Entrepreneurship and Libraries Conference.

About the BLC Business Librarianship Speaker Series:

January 28, 2022

Webinar

BLC Business Librarianship Speaker Series: Free Business Sources for New England

In this workshop, Jennifer will introduce you to New England-specific sources in the public domain from the federal government, open access from states, and a few commercially available data sources. Make sure you are using a laptop or workstation, so you can apply search strategies and customize the handouts for your community. By the end of our time, you will be going beyond the Census to describe your community'sbusiness environment or help your entrepreneurs and researchers.

About the Presenter:

Jennifer Boettcher is the Business Reference Librarian at Georgetown University since 1997. She was formerly Business Librarian at Texas A&M University and Head of Reference at the National SBDC Center Research Network. She got her BA in Art History degree at UNH-Durham, MLS at SUNY-Albany, and MBA at Georgetown. Her research focuses on open data from government sources and industry research. She co-authored, with Leonard Gaines, Industry Research Using the Economic Census: How to Find It, How to Use It (Greenwood Press, 2004) and has written widely on the NAICS classification system and OpenData.

About the BLC Business Librarianship Speaker Series: