See also the Governance Structure, and the Partnership PAN and Quarterly Reports
About the Partnership
The Partnership for Shared Book Collections is a federation of monograph shared print programs in the U.S. and Canada whose mission is to ensure the long-term preservation of, access to, and integrity of monographic print resources. The Partnership supports both established and fledgling monograph shared print programs by coordinating collaboration for the protection of print books. Through the development of best practices, support of research on the risks to the loss of the print scholarly record, and advocacy for improving the infrastructure to support shared print, the Partnership identifies work that can be done collectively to advance mission-critical services while saving time and money locally. The member programs have already committed to retain over 40 million books (and growing!) primarily in academic and research libraries across the United States and Canada and make these materials available for scholarship, research, and teaching through inter-library loan and other forms of resource sharing. Our sister organization, the Rosemont Shared Print Alliance offers a similar focus to ensure the retention of and access to print journal backfiles.
See also the January 23, 2019 Partnership Press Release.
Background
Academic and research libraries (along with some research oriented public libraries) have collaborated for some time to preserve the print scholarly record, so as to ensure the efficient and effective care of physical library resources while making sure users have access to their materials.
Preservation and storage facilities such as the Research Collections and Preservation Service (ReCAP), large scale digitization and preservation initiatives such as HathiTrust, and programs such as EAST have all focused on long-term retention of books while ensuring they are accessible for scholars, faculty and students. More recently, alliances of consortial shared print programs, such as the Rosemont Shared Print Alliance, which is focused on archiving print serials and journals for scholarship, are beginning to be formed to strengthen this commitment thus ensuring print scholarship remains accessible for scholars in this digital age. The vision for the Partnership is a logical outgrowth of these efforts and aims to unify efforts across programs, projects, and initiatives in the U.S. and Canada already involved in monograph shared print as well as encourage the expansion of such initiatives to further protect the cultural and scholarly print record.
Historical Documents
The following documents reflect the work of the 2018 Shared Print Summits participants. Below are the notes from the April and December Summits, and a resulting initial services document.
Notes from the April 2018 Summit
Notes from the December 2018 Summit
About the Partnership & Services (2 pager) – December 2019