Columbia, SC and Sterling, MA, December 6, 2023
The Eastern Academic Scholars’ Trust (EAST) announces the addition of 37 new member libraries joining the shared print community from the Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries (PASCAL) consortium in South Carolina. This follows the addition of 41 libraries from VIVA, Virginia’s Academic Library Consortium announced earlier this year.
Seventeen of the PACAL member libraries are joining EAST as Consortia Retention Partners:
- Anderson University
- Charleston Southern University
- The Citadel
- Clemson University
- Coastal Carolina University
- College of Charleston
- Converse University
- Francis Marion University
- Furman University
- Lander University
- South Carolina State University
- Spartanburg Methodist College
- University of South Carolina (Includes School of Law & School of Medicine)
- University of South Carolina Beaufort
- University of South Carolina Upstate
- Winthrop University
- Wofford College
The circulating print collections of these libraries number close to 4 million titles, which will be included in a group wide collection analysis to determine titles to be added to the EAST collective collection, now at over 11 million monographs and 37 thousand serials and journals representing the titles EAST members have committed to retain in their local collections on behalf of EAST and lend to partner libraries. To ensure these collective titles can be discovered and accessed by partner library users, they are registered in OCLC WorldCattⓇ, in the Gold Rush Library Comparator tool maintained by the Colorado Alliance, and in local libraries’ online systems.
In addition to these new EAST Retention Partners, 21 other PASCAL member libraries are joining EAST as Consortia Supporting Partners, allowing them to participate along with their PASCAL Retention Partners, in the EAST lending network, which includes the more than 150 libraries in the Eastern United States. This network supports lending and borrowing using standard inter-library loan.
Rick Moul, Executive Director of PASCAL commented, “South Carolina’s academic libraries will benefit greatly from the expertise and experience shared by our new colleagues. EAST provides important tools for us to protect and preserve the most essential elements of the print collections in academic libraries around the state. EAST’s shared print program provides advantages of scale and affordability, as well as a well-developed and tested methodology for collection analysis and ongoing maintenance of its collective collection. This collaboration is a great way for us to protect the scholarly holdings of many of our libraries as well as extend access for others.”
Chris Cox, Dean of Libraries at Clemson University stated, “Joining EAST is an excellent opportunity for Clemson and our fellow PASCAL libraries to work with premiere research libraries across the Eastern United States to protect and preserve physical resources for posterity.”
John White, Dean of Libraries at College of Charleston noted, “We are very excited to join EAST and to contribute to its mission to expand and preserve access to the rich collections of its member institutions. We are honored to be included among the more than 100 member libraries. I have no doubt that membership in EAST will benefit not only our students at the College of Charleston, but the larger academic community that we are now a part of.”
Susan Stearns, Program Director for EAST, commented, “The staff at PASCAL have been amazing in their support of shared print and in their organizational ability to move quickly to undertake the collection analysis work that will ensure unique, scarcely held, and frequently used titles continue to be protected and accessible to the academic and research library community.”
Contacts:
EAST: Susan Stearns, Program Director, sstearns@eastlibraries.org
PASCAL: Ellan Jenkinson, Member Engagement and Training Librarian, Ellan.Jenkinson@pascalsc.org
PASCAL
The Partnership Among South Carolina Academic Libraries (PASCAL) is South Carolina’s statewide academic library consortium, serving over 230,000 students at 55 colleges and universities. Established in 2001, PASCAL supports higher education in South Carolina through multiple programs including a Shared Library Services Platform for 53 institutions; statewide rapid resource sharing service; shared licensing of electronic resources; collaborative collection management, and affordable learning. PASCAL’s cost-effective, collaborative initiatives enable member libraries to provide essential academic resources and enhanced library services while reducing costs.
EAST
EAST is a collaboration of over 150+ academic and research institutions focused on protecting and preserving print scholarly materials. By comparing the print collections of EAST Retention Partners, a collective collection of unique, scarcely held, and frequently used book and journal titles is identified to be retained by the participating libraries. The EAST Lending Network ensures these titles can be shared across the member libraries. Today over 11 million books and over 37 thousand journal titles are protected through the EAST collective collection.