Boston Library Consortium

For Librarians

The Boston Library Consortium offers services to librarians 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

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

Resource Sharing and the BLC

During this time of uncertainty and rapidly shifting information, ILL librarians at member institutions should update and check the Resource Sharing COI's list-serv and wiki for changes in lending/borrowing activities within the BLC. The Resource...

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BLC Leads 2020 Participants Announced!

The BLC Leads program continues in 2020 with a new cohort. A selection committee selected twenty participants for this year's program and all have accepted the invitation to participate. Participants work at thirteen of the...

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Member Events

April 09, 2020

Meeting

BLC Special Collections COI - Virtual Meeting

The Special Collections COI will hold a virtual meeting on Thursday, April 9th from 12:00pm-2:00pm. The agenda and remote login instructions will be shared via the COI's list-serv.

April 13, 2020

Meeting

BLC AUL/AD COI Virtual Meeting

The BLC's AUL/AD Community of Interest will hold its next virtual meeting on Monday, April 13th, 2020 from 10:00am-12:00pm. The agenda and login instructions will be shared via the COI's list-serv.

April 16, 2020

Meeting

BLC Leads Alumni Virtual Meeting

The BLC Leads 2017 and 2018 participants will meet virtually on Thursday, April 6th from 10:00am-11:00am for a group discussion. The readings and call in information have been shared via the BLC.Leads List-Serv.

April 16, 2020

Webinar

Resource Sharing and Streaming Media: Survey of the Landscape, presented by the BLC Media COI

Technology changes bring exciting benefits and challenges for academic libraries. The emergence of streaming media vendors such as Kanopy and Swank has opened the door to questions that touch on the essence of our work: What can be shared? What are the limits for inter-library loan in a streaming media landscape? What are the legal implications for libraries when sharing streaming media?

This webinar will provide a brief survey of this landscape, addressing questions of streaming media and resource sharing. Members of the SILLVR Project - Katy Divittorio, Philip Gaddis, and Sommer Browning, will present on the work of the project and provide an overview of implications for resource sharing.

Following this presentation, Kyle K. Courtney will address some of the questions and uncertanties faced by librarians as streaming media becomes more prevalent. How do we address the needs to enable scholarship and access in a consumer-licensed world? Libraries have traditionally relied on a suite of copyright exceptions to provide all types of media used by students, faculty, and the public. These exceptions are threatened by the rise of licensed digital materials and consumer-facing companies (Netflix, Spotify, Steam, and more) that will not offer libraries a license at any price. How can libraries provide access, preserve culture, and save the public record in an era where we cannot lawfully acquire popular and scholarly media? Kyle K. Courtney will outline the problem and advance new legal insights to reducing the legal risk of using commercial platforms for popular media.

More about the SILLVR Project

SILLVR is an innovative project that allows for ILL of streaming video. Launched in January 2020, this project created a way to share streaming videos across libraries for the first time. This presentation will delve into partnerships forged, details of the agreements, and the new ILL workflows created. Data from the pilot, project outcomes and challenges will be shared. The presentation will end with advice on how attendees can implement their own dream initiatives.

Presenters

Katy Divittorio is the Head of Collections Strategies at the Auraria Library. In this role she provides leadership to the Collections Strategies Department which acquires, licenses, and assesses collections, manages the physical library stacks, and oversees ILL.
Philip Gaddis is the Acquisitions and Interlibrary Loan Manager for Auraria Library. He oversees the direct (non-consortia) acquisitions of electronic resources as well as all aspects of ILL.
Sommer Browning is the Associate Director of Technical Services at the Auraria Library. In this role she oversees the Collections Strategies department, the Discovery and Metadata department, and the Systems Administration unit.
Kyle K. Courtney is the Copyright Advisor and Program Manager at Harvard University, working out of the Office for Scholarly Communication. He works closely with Harvard Library to establish a culture of shared understanding of copyright issues among Harvard staff, faculty, and students. His “Copyright First Responders” initiative is in its sixth year, and has spread beyond Harvard to reach libraries, archives, and cultural institutions in the Northeast and Norhtwest. He also currently maintains a dual appointment at Northeastern University: teaching at the School of Law, and also teaching “Cyberlaw: Privacy, Ethics, and Digital Rights” for the interdisciplinary CyberSecurity & Information Assurance program at the College of Computer and Information Science.

May 08, 2020

Meeting

BLC Heads of Resource Management Committee Meeting

The Heads of Resource Management Committee have scheduled a meeting on Friday, May 8th, from 10:00am-12:00pm. Location details and the agenda will be shared closer to the meeting date via the committee's list-serv.