Build It Yourself or Buy It? John Culshaw Professor and Associate Director for Administrative Services University of Colorado at Boulder

University Profile 30,000 students Mid-sized ARL library (3.8m volumes, $9.63m resources budget) Innovative Interfaces ILS since librarians, 109 support staff

ILS Platforms Founding member of Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries CARLs Public Access Catalog (PAC) deployed in library since inception in 1984 Migrated to INNOPAC in 1994 Committed to Millennium platform in 1999 Adopted Encore discovery layer in 2009.

Other Critical Services Digital Library: Luna Insight Repository: Alliance Digital Repository (ADR)

Why Buy It? Functionality Partnerships Campus Environment Finances and Staffing

Functionality Need for stable, consistent systems Millennium continues to meet needs Open source ILS platforms not fully fleshed out

Partnership Partnership works Development partnerships Strong user community

Partnership: Encore Selection Seamless integration with Millennium platform Real-time circulation information Single-sign on Electronic resource data Integration with Prospector

Campus Environment Campus also advocates buy-it approach New SIS – PeopleSoft Tested Sakai – kept WebCT Need infrastructure improvements

Finances and Staffing

Rani Machoi IT Professional IV # FTE Tim Leal IT Technician II # FTE Mark Sondergard IT Professional I # FTE Hans Schmidt IT Professional I # FTE Justin Van Voorst IT Professional I # FTE Richard Losoff IT Professional I # FTE John Dziadecki IT Technician II # FTE John Culshaw ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES # FTE Rani Machoi Interim Libraries IT Dept. Director # & FTE Holley Long Digital Initiatives Asst. Professor # FTE Michael Riberdy Media Specialist IV # FTE

University of Colorado Libraries Budget

Staffing Picture even more challenging when compared to AAU peers –Ratio of librarians to students –Ratio of library IT staff to students –Ratio of library IT staff to total staff

The support for community-driven software development in higher education is at a relatively young, fragile stage and needs to be embraced by a wider variety of institutions. -- Robert McDonald

Challenge? Dilemma? Maintain existing service levels Consider current budgeting and staffing models

Our Strategy Continue to buy Maintain strong partner relationships with vendors Monitor open source trends Continually lobby for increased resources.

Sources ARL Statistics Washington DC: Association of College and Research Libraries, Fisher, Steve P. Research Library Collaboration in Colorado – The Birth and Early Evolution of CARL, the Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries. Collaborative Librarianship 1:3 (2009), McDonald, Robert H. Sustainable Communities for Software: Variations on a Theme. EDUCAUSE Review 44:5 (September/October 2009), 6-7.