What is Shared Print?
Shared Print Programs consist of a group of libraries that share responsibility for managing print materials. Shared print programs make retentions commitments, which are commitments libraries make to retain specific materials for an agreed upon period of time. The Collective Collection Wikipedia page is a good place to start for more detailed information about shared print.
What Shared Print Does for Libraries
A Cost Saving Strategy
- With institutions facing reduced budgets and prioritizing cost savings, shared print offers an immediate and tangible way to reduce duplication, streamline storage, and avoid unnecessary capital investments in space.
- Coordinated retention agreements prevent each institution from bearing the full burden of long-term preservation on its own.
Preserves the Scholarly Record
- The top priority for scholars is to ensure their research is preserved long term. Participation in shared print means that a set number of copies of the titles in shared print collections will be preserved in a physical format.
- Digital research ecosystems are fragile without secure preservation of the physical scholarly record—shared print stabilizes this ecosystem.
Expands Access
- Both students and researchers benefit from having access to shared collections in addition to what is provided by the library at their home institution.
Reduces Institutional Risk and Strengthens Autonomy
- Financial cuts, renovation projects, and shifting priorities put print collections at risk. A shared network spreads the preservation responsibility so no single library becomes a point of failure.
- Shared print supports institutional reputations as responsible stewards of knowledge, even during times of fiscal restraint.
A Scalable, Equity-Focused System
- Smaller institutions gain access to a stable preservation network they could never afford individually; larger institutions benefit from distributed storage and reduced duplication.
- Shared print promotes equitable access to preserved materials across the country.
- Shared print mitigates institutional vulnerabilities and counters the impact of localized censorship pressures
How the SPP Supports Shared Print Programs
The Shared Print Partnership provides vision and professional resources for shared print programs across both institutional and national boundaries. The work of the SPP includes:
Community
The SPP provides a community for those working in the field of shared print and related library activities. The group fosters connection and the exchange of ideas across institutional boundaries.
Best Practices
The SPP supports the work of librarians engaged in the work of shared print and related fields by providing a continuously updated set of best practices. These can be found on the Shared Print Toolkit.
Standards Guidelines
The SPP tracks current and emerging standards for metadata and provides recommendations and guidelines for librarians in the field.
Technical Innovation
The SPP identifies the needs and challenges for those in the shared print community as well as challenges the world of shared print shares with other kinds of library work. The SPP helps identify existing technologies that can be used to benefit shared print work and undertakes research to investigate potential new technological innovations.
Advocacy
The SPP advocates for shared print through the above activities and keeps up to date on the best ways for libraries to advocate for shared print.
Becoming an SPP Member
Members of the SPP get a seat at the table, getting access to special events and the ability to vote on things that matter for the shared print community. If you are a shared print group of any size and interested in joining the SPP to support the work of quality shared print practices write to info@sharedprint.org