For the September SPP Spotlight, we interview Tony Fonseca, the current chair of the SPP Executive Committee. Tony is Director of Alumnae Library & College Archivist at Elms College, and has long been a dedicated member of the shared print community. In this interview he shares some of his perspectives on the way shared print has been an integral part of supporting libraries in managing collections for many years now and the exciting future for shared print work that lies ahead as the work of the SPP gets underway.
How did you first become interested in shared print?
When I was interviewed in 2012 for my current job, I was told in the interview that our Administration wanted to move other offices into the library to create a Center for Student Success. At that time, the library’s print collection was on three floors and total 188,000 volumes. Within my first month, we were told to get rid of every book on one of those floors. I knew it would not stop there (we are currently at one floor and 34,000 volumes). Coming from a research background (a PhD in English), my first thought was how do we do this responsibly. In 2014, when a meeting to discuss the Northeast Regional Depository was held, I attended and learned about shared print. That idea eventually became EAST, a distributed shared print program. I’ve been a huge supporter of EAST since, and have been on its Executive Committee/Board since 2016.
I am constantly reminded of the reasons it is essential that the scholarly record be preserved and made accessible.
What is your current job and how does it relate to shared print?
I am the Library Director, Archivist, and Head of Circulation at Elms College, which is located near Springfield, Massachusetts. We used our EAST retention list to weed our remaining collection back around 2016. We kept everything on the retention list and titles newer than 2016, plus any titles we knew circulated (most of my staff has been at the college 20+ years, so they knew what circulated). Since then we’ve remained an EAST member. As the Backup for Interlibrary Loan, I am constantly reminded of the reasons it is essential that the scholarly record be preserved and made accessible.
You’ve just started your term as Executive Committee Chair for the SPP in July of 2026. What are you most excited about the SPP doing in the coming year?
I am most excited about the possibility of growing membership and meeting new people. I thoroughly enjoy working with the SPP’s Canadian members, and I think that the SPP can have a role in other countries, especially since our fiscal sponsor, CLIR, is an international organization.
Libraries and related organizations are about coordination and collaboration. I want that to be our message, that SPP can be front and center with helping with both of those.
What do you think the most important long term goal(s) are for the shared print community?
The most important long term goal of any organization has to be sustainability. Once we’ve addressed that goal successfully, growing membership has to be our next long term goal. I come from EAST, which started at 54 libraries. Now, it can celebrate its tenth anniversary with over 250. I want that kind of growth for SPP.
What would you most like the library community to know about shared print and the SPP?
Libraries and related organizations are about coordination and collaboration. I want that to be our message, that SPP can be front and center with helping with both of those. In addition, I am blown away by the expertise we have among our SPP member programs. I want libraries to know about that.
What is your favorite part of library work?
My favorite part of library work is easily working with the public. I am shy by nature, so working with the public helps bring me out of my own head. I’ve become friends with faculty colleagues, with former student workers (in fact, one has become like a daughter to me), and with library patrons. I try to bring kindness and consideration into every interaction, and I have been fortunate to be more than paid in kind.
What is currently your favorite thing outside of library work?
This one is easy. My favorite pastime is music. I play multiple instruments, listen to music every night (although my partner and I have new cats that don’t like anything too raucous, so we’ve had to be selective–one of them loves crooners like Johnny Hartman and Mel Torme, and easy going music like Kraftwerk and Cowboy Junkies, so we’ve had to shelf LCD Soundsystem and TV on the Radio), and co-own a small but extremely well outfitted music studio (and of course its “cat” named). I absolutely love actively engaging in music. For example, if I hear of a new instrument or one I haven’t held in my hands, I immediately go to Youtube to watch someone teach how it’s played. I’m co-authoring a folk book right now, and it’s been fun learning how banjos are strummed and/or fingerpicked or what the difference is between Scottish and Irish bagpipes. I also love to cook, and if you get me talking about vegetarian or vegan cooking, you won’t be able to stop me.
Are you an SPP member who would be interested in doing and SPP spotlight? Or would you like to nominate someone? If so, send an email to info@sharedprint.org