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Alliance Shared Print Trust

The Alliance Shared Print Trust was established in 2015 as a way for members of the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries to make long-term retention commitments on selected print holdings. As libraries move from print to digital holdings, academic libraries have significant legacy physical collections which must either be stored in on-campus libraries or off-campus storage facilities at significant expense. Through making long-term retention commitments, libraries will be able be able to safely weed or store collections without a loss of access for their patrons. The program also helps ensure the integrity of the intellectual record making sure that libraries do not accidentally discard rare or unique materials from the regional or national setting.

Speedy delivery for patron requesting is ensured through combining the Alliance Shared Print Trust with the Prospector union catalog. Using Prospector, patrons will be able to search and request print and digital collections with fast delivery of print materials through a regional courier as local libraries right-size their print holdings.

Alliance Shared Print Trust by the numbers:

  • Launched 2015
  • 14 regional libraries have signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)
  • 25-year commitments are made for tagged print holdings through 2040
  • Over 1.1 million monographic titles currently have retention commitments
  • Programmatic review every 5 years
  • Gold Rush analytics has been developed by the Alliance to support the program for itself and other interested libraries around North America

 

The Alliance Shared Print Trust has not been developed in isolation but in collaboration with other regional programs in North America. The Alliance is a founding member of the Partnership for Shared Book Collections (https://sharedprint.org/) which “coordinates the long-term preservation of, access to, and integrity of monographic print resources in North America.” Several Alliance libraries also participate in the WEST Western Regional Storage Trust (https://cdlib.org/west/) which focuses on the long-term preservation of journals/serials. In addition, several Alliance libraries also participate in the HathiTrust Shared Print Program (https://www.hathitrust.org/shared_print_program). Overlapping participation in shared print programs is encouraged and libraries may tag their cataloging records with duplicate commitments.