The purpose of the Community of Interest for Associate University Librarians (AUL's) and Associate Deans (AD's) is to create a mechanism for members to network, share information and learn from each other about AUL/AD roles and responsibilities and to create a forum to share ideas and best practices on topics such as staffing, facilities, budget, collections, services, teaching and learning, scholarly communication, assessment, and strategic approaches to these and other topics. On occasion this COI may undertake initiatives on their own or in conjunction with other BLC communities. 

The BLC, under the leadership of a Workforce Development Task Force composed of members of the AUL/AD COI  has developed an ambitious program focused on addressing common workforce issues across the BLC libraries that capitalizes on the talent distributed across the Consortium.  This initiative  focuses on the broader challenges facing academic libraries and new, emerging roles for librarians. The primary focus of the program is to benefit the BLC membership, with the purpose of strengthening and enhancing the Consortium, with positive, indirect benefits for the individual institutions and their staffs. The BLC Board of Directors has endorsed this new strategic direction for the BLC and provided seed money for its further development.

A major component of the workforce development program is the BLC Leads Program, which began in 2017 and continues as a biannual program.

Membership

The AUL Community of Interest is for staff designated as AUL/AD or others with equivalent positions working in BLC Libraries.

Meetings

Meetings will be held four times a year. Location sites will rotate among COI members. The AUL/AD associated with the location site will serve as convener and the previous convener will serve as recorder.