We enjoyed seeing so many of you at the BLC Forum last month! Special thanks to Boston University for hosting and helping make our annual meeting a success. In this edition of The BLC Bookmark, you’ll find program highlights covering everything from our new BLC Card program to E-Book ILL Lender Tracker and the launch of Phase II of the Network Zone Project.
Professional Development
Resource Management
Resource Sharing
Shared Systems & Services
Other Consortial Updates
BLC Forum 2025 Brings Together Members for a Day of Connection and Collaboration
252 colleagues from all 26 BLC member institutions attended BLC Forum 2025, hosted at Boston University. BLC Forum featured 27 member-led presentations, workshops, panels, roundtables, lightning talks, and a poster session, highlighting the innovation and expertise across the consortium. A review of the 2025 BLC Forum will be published on the BLC website later in July.
BLC Leads 2025 Kicks Off
BLC’s flagship leadership program launched last month with the Leadership Institute at Trinity College, welcoming 21 Fellows from 14 BLC member institutions and external fellows from Florida International University, Stony Brook University, and Howard University.
BLC Mentors Program Launches for Mid-Career Professionals
In April, BLC launched BLC Mentors, a 9-month pilot program supporting mid-career library professionals across the consortium. Hosted by Brandeis University, the kickoff retreat welcomed 16 participants matched with experienced mentors. The hybrid program combines one-on-one mentoring with cohort-based learning and will conclude with a retreat at Tufts University in December.
Help Shape BLC’s Professional Development Offerings: Annual Survey Coming in July
Now more than ever, BLC’s member-led programming plays a vital role in supporting this consortial community. With opportunities for you to share your expertise with your BLC peers or request topics and speakers to address your current professional development needs and challenges, we want to hear from you. Later this month, we’ll share out our annual professional development member needs survey via BLC Announcements to gather your input on the topics and issues that matter most. We encourage you to share feedback not only through the survey, but also year-round via our website form or by reaching out to Team BLC directly. BLC is committed to listening and responding to your evolving needs.
New Co-Chairs
BLC is pleased to welcome a new slate of community co-chairs as they begin their two-year terms. We’re still seeking volunteers to help lead several BLC Communities, including our Alma/Primo COP, Heads of Resource Management Committee, Media COI, Science & Engineering COI, Technology COI, and Web Archiving COI. Serving as a co-chair offers a valuable opportunity for library staff across BLC member institutions to take on a leadership role and gain hands-on experience in community-building. If you're interested in serving, please review our Recommended Practices for BLC Communities and complete this form or contact Amahl McHenry, BLC’s Executive Assistant and Operations Manager.
Community Reports
BLC’s annual Community Report templates have been distributed to co-chairs. These brief reports help surface opportunities for collaboration and knowledge-sharing, and provide insight into how BLC can best support its co-chairs and member communities. These reports are due by July 18.
Communities at BLC Forum
Sixteen BLC Communities, Committees, and Caucuses held in-person meetings during the BLC Forum at Boston University on June 5. These gatherings underscored the value of face-to-face connection in fostering community and collaboration across institutions.
Joint In-Person COI Meeting
The Archives & Special Collections and Media COIs hosted a joint meeting and digitization tour at the Boston Public Library in May. Attendees toured BPL’s digitization center, then gathered for an informal roundtable discussion exploring the intersections of media, archives and special collections, and digital preservation.
New Communities of Practice & Working Groups
As BLC’s Network Zone transitions into Phase II, four new Communities of Practice and two new Working Groups have been established to support Network Zone practitioners. These groups, which have evolved from the original Implementation Teams, are working collaboratively to realize the full potential of the Network Zone.
We’re Hiring a New Program Manager for Licensing and Content
The Program Manager for Licensing and Content leads BLC’s shared licensing and content strategy, driving consortial acquisitions, licensing, and resource management in alignment with BLC’s strategic priorities. This role negotiates vendor agreements, manages collaborative workflows, and fosters shared decision-making across the libraries at BLC’s member institutions. Learn more and apply here.
Scaling our Licensing and Content Program
BLC has launched a new Group Subscription Strategy Subcommittee to guide the consortium’s shared licensing efforts in partnership with the new Program Manager for Licensing and Content. The subcommittee will solicit and prioritize resource recommendations from the HRM Committee, identify new licensing opportunities aligned with BLC goals, develop evaluation criteria, recommend negotiation priorities, and support vendor negotiations as needed.
Revamped BLC Card Program Launches this Fall
The Consortium Card Working Group, in collaboration with the Access Services COI, is finalizing its updates to the BLC Card Program. The newly-designed cards will be distributed to member institutions this summer, with a number of institutions beta testing digital versions of the cards in fall 2025.
BLC Launches Newly Hosted E-Book ILL Lender Tracker
BLC is pleased to serve as the new host of the E-Book ILL Lender Tracker, a self-reporting tool for libraries to share the publishers and e-book collections they are able to lend through interlibrary loan. Originally created by Dev Singer of Brandeis University, the tracker provides broader collections transparency for the resource sharing community to be able to borrow digital content. We thank Dev for her ingenuity in creating a community centered resource to further libraries ability to lend their digital collections and BLC is honored to host and steward this resource on behalf of the global resource sharing community.
If your library currently lends whole e-books through interlibrary loan, we encourage you to submit your information through the following link: Submit to E-Book ILL Lender Tracker.
Partner Shipping Pilot Concludes with Extensive Savings
BLC’s Partner Shipping Pilot concluded in May, realizing over $10,000 in shipping cost savings. We are incredibly grateful to the partnering institutions who helped realize these savings on behalf of the consortium: Bentley University, Connecticut College, Middlebury College, Northeastern University, Trinity College, University of Hartford, University of New Hampshire, Wellesley College, and Wesleyan University. A final report on the pilot will be shared out with the Resource Sharing COI later this summer.
ILL Systems Evaluation Criteria
The ILL Systems Evaluation Working Group released the final version of their ILL systems evaluation criteria on June 23, launching a 10-week prioritization period to engage BLC’s resource sharing community in identifying the desired and required functionalities, standards, and protocols of their resource sharing software. The prioritization period will close on August 29 and be followed up by a request for information process with leading vendors to assess how well their software meets BLC’s technical and consortial requirements.
Best Practices & Reciprocal Agreements
The Best Practices & Reciprocal Agreements Working Group has completed a draft of updated policies and best practices to guide our consortial sharing standards, to be reviewed and approved in fall 2025. Utilizing these revised documents, the group will meet in June to strategize ideal parameters for reciprocal arrangements with other consortia for future consideration with the Resource Sharing COI.
Library Systems and Services Consultant
We are pleased to announce a new role for Team BLC member Ben Ide as our new Library Systems and Services Consultant. This new role brings capacity and flexibility to support new systems and technical services projects at individual BLC member institutions, while working closely with BLC leadership to position BLC as a catalyst and central resource for leading, researching, assessing, and managing shared systems and services.
Network Zone Day
On June 4, nearly 30 colleagues from participating and prospective institutions convened at Bentley University for a collaborative, in-person meeting focused on building relationships across and within Network Zone Communities of Practice and Working Groups and setting clear goals for the year ahead.
We’re Hiring a New Network Zone Manager
The Network Zone Manager serves as the chief strategist, architect, and champion of BLC’s shared library system—the Network Zone. In this pivotal role, the Network Zone Manager is responsible for actualizing the full potential of this essential infrastructure, ensuring it is not only stable and reliable, but also forward-looking, interoperable, and deeply impactful for participating libraries at BLC’s member institutions. Learn more and apply here.
Shared Services Working Group Report & Recommendations
Following a series of member-wide surveys, conversations with BLC Communities, and internal evaluation processes, the Shared Services Working Group (SSWG) has identified several high-potential shared services for BLC to develop or expand. Guided by its charge and aligned with BLC’s strategic priorities, the SSWG developed recommendations for scalable, sustainable next steps, ultimately proposing four areas for further exploration: a physical repository; group licensing of software and memberships; centrally managed software programs; and shared consulting services. BLC members can read the full report here.
RUSA STARS Publication Recognition Award
BLC’s E-Book Working Group has received the 2025 RUSA STARS Publication Recognition Award for their report, E-Book ILL Roadmaps: Charting Pathways for Broader Adoption of E-Book Interlibrary Loan. Learn more about the E-Book ILL Roadmaps, here.
The Unraveling of Federal Support for Libraries
In April, 2025, the Boston Library Consortium (BLC) received formal notices that two of our federal grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) had been terminated, effective immediately. Their termination disrupted not only our immediate programs but a larger vision of collaboration and access—one that BLC has been championing since our libraries first came together in 1959. On May 13, 2025 a federal judge issued a Preliminary Injunction Order in State of Rhode Island et al. v. Trump et al. (1:25-cv-00128), halting efforts to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Pursuant to that order, BLC received formal notice on May 21 that both of our terminated grants have been fully reinstated. You can read more about the termination, its impacts and its reinstatement, here.
We hope you enjoyed this edition of the BLC Bookmark News and we encourage you to reach out to Team BLC with any questions, comments, suggestions, or if you’re looking for ways to get involved.