SCELC Partners with Auto-Graphics to Offer One-Year Pilot Shared Print Discovery Catalog

*FONTANA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / December 12, 2022 / *The Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC) has partnered with Auto-Graphics, Inc. on a one-year pilot program to offer a revolutionary approach to shared print for academic libraries.

With the approval of the SCELC Board of Directors, the SCELC Shared Print and Resource Sharing Committees have begun to design, create, and implement a pilot shared print discovery catalog built on Auto-Graphics' SHAREit resource-sharing platform.

The project, known as SHARP, will feature a database of the several million records of circulating print monograph retention commitments made by over 40 institutions participating in the SCELC Shared Print Program. The catalog will be available to participating libraries as a discovery tool, and the records will be exportable for use in other discovery layers, with links returning searchers to SHARP.

"SCELC is excited about this partnership with Auto-Graphics to create a discovery, access, and resource sharing solution for monographic shared print retention commitments, filling an important gap in the infrastructure needs of Shared Print programs," said Linda Wobbe, eJournal Relations Manager and Liaison to Resource Sharing and Shared Print Committees at SCELC. "The shared print community includes over 50 programs dedicated to retaining print resources, and has registered over 25 million retention commitments in WorldCat with SCELC - the third-largest program in terms of registered retention commitments."

While academic libraries across the country have designed many shared print solutions, there is still a lack of one cohesive approach. The key to this pioneering effort is adapting a proven resource-sharing system with a mechanism to house the metadata referencing the academic library's shared print collection and its respective retention policy. Additionally, library staff can extract key metrics to give publishers direction on what to digitize.

"Auto-Graphics is excited about the opportunity to continue to work with SCELC, a national consortium," said Albert Flores, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Auto-Graphics, Inc. "When SCELC presented the concept of a shared-print system, we felt strongly that SHAREit would be an ideal platform to solve the need for a regional or national shared-print solution for the academic community."

Live status checks and resource sharing functionality will be included in the initial implementation, with full functionality expected by the beginning of 2023.

The Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC) was established in 1986 to develop resource-sharing among the libraries of private academic institutions in Southern California. SCELC has grown to include libraries across California and 38 other states and is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation. Among the top five North American consortia in terms of licensing volume, SCELC represents 112 member institutions, over 200 affiliate institutions, an aggregate student population of approximately 500,000, more than $200 million in library budgets, and holdings comprising more than 21 million volumes. SCELC libraries can license nearly 2,500 electronic resources from more than 100 vendors.

*About Auto-Graphics, Inc*

Auto-Graphics, Inc. is a library management and sharing software company serving customers' needs and technology to improve, assist, expand, and engage the communities they serve. Auto-Graphics was the first to provide Cloud-based library resource management to library consortia in 1994. For over 60 years, Auto-Graphics has sustained growth in carefully targeted directions, using the most state-of-the-art tools and good old-fashion business relationships. Its focus on industry requirements, high standards, product warranty, technically oriented staff, and serviceability have all contributed to the success we see today. For more information, please visit the A-G website at www.auto-graphics.com.

*CONTACT:*
Albert Flores
VP of Sales and Marketing
909-569-1502
abf@auto-graphics.com

*SOURCE: *Auto-Graphics, Inc.
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