WELCOME TO FLvc Library services

Hello Everyone,

As we approach the end of the calendar year, I’ve been reflecting back on the accomplishments of FLVC and our dedicated staff over the past months. Each year, FLVC publishes an Annual Report that provides information on the work of the organization. As we’re winding down the year, I’d like to share some of the highlights of FLVC Library Services activities for the year.

As a reminder, FLVC Library Services provides library and information resources and services to all Florida College System and State University System institutions: 40 institutions in total, with more than 150 library locations, serving more than 1 million students, faculty, and staff. Because of the size and scope of the institutions served by FLVC, we are able to leverage both expertise and buying power to provide exceptional services and resources.

Alma, the integrated library system (ILS) provided by FLVC, provides all public postsecondary students, faculty, and staff with access to 16 million books and other physical materials, 35 million electronic resources (e-resources), and 1.35 million digital archive items. By licensing the ILS centrally, FLVC saves the state of Florida $16 million annually, compared to the cost of implementing the system individually at each institution. An additional $1.8 million is saved each year on the cost of ILS software licensing. During the 2022-23 academic year, library users performed more than 21 million searches of the ILS!

FLVC also works with a variety of publishers and vendors to negotiate, acquire, and manage a statewide collection of information-rich e-resources for Florida’s public postsecondary institutions. Through this centralized process, FLVC saved the state of Florida $19 million in 2023, compared to decentralized licensing. These cost savings are the result of incredible work by FLVC’s e-resources staff! The e-resources contracts are on a calendar year basis, and from January to December 2022, college and university students, faculty, and staff used the statewide e-resources collection to perform more than 12.2 million searches and 6.5million downloads.

In addition to the statewide collection, FLVC staff negotiate opt-in e-resource licenses on behalf of member libraries. This “group licensing” program enables FLVC to leverage its consortial relationship to negotiate substantial cost savings for interested libraries. During 2022-23, FLVC negotiated group licenses with 35 content providers for a record-breaking 589 subscriptions, surpassing all previous subscription numbers since the program’s inception. In total, FLVC saved institutions participating in the group licensing process more than $19.6million compared to individual licensing costs. FLVC also provides platforms and services to support e-resources, such as the OpenAthens authentication platform, Consortia Manager e-resources collection platform, and CELUS e-resources statistics platform, along with staff support for collections management and statistical reporting.

FLVC provides platforms and support for digital collections and initiatives, such as FL Islandora, Florida OJ, and the Florida Open Academic Library (FOAL). FL-Islandora supports more than 100,000 unique digital collections and archival items, with nearly 5,000 items added during 2022-23. Florida OJ provides online public access to 50 journals published by institutions across the state in a variety of academic disciplines. Florida OJ was accessed nearly 600,000 times in 2022-23. FLVC successfully upgraded Florida OJ during this year, including enhanced security and long-term protection and preservation of journal articles.

FLVC continues to be a national leader in addressing issues of textbook affordability and providing support for the creation and adoption of Open Education Resources (OER). In May, FLVC hosted the annual OER Summit, drawing more than 500 librarians, educators, and administrators from across the nation to explore ways that OER positively benefit students, faculty, and institutions. The Summit featured state and national experts in OER and higher education, and highlighted tools and resources to help attendees implement and expand local OER programs. In addition, FLVC’s OPEN FL program provides a supportive OER environment for participating Florida colleges and universities. The goal of OPEN FL is to create a community and infrastructure for OER development, proliferation, and research throughout the state. More than 250 college and university librarians participate in OPENFL. FLVC’s Digital Services and OER staff provided additional support throughout the year, such as:

• Collaborated with institutions to publish an OER Review Standard and Approval Rubric.
  
• Conducted "FL-OER-ishment" webinars for institutional OER professionals statewide. Webinar topics included enhancing student and campus engagement through OER, relationships between affordable resources and student success, and strategies for developing affordable courses.
• Launched the Cardiovascular Technology (CVT) Institute on OER, a yearlong, in-depth training and education program for CVT professionals across the nation.
• Collaborated with state and national OER experts and students to develop a Student Advocate Packet to help increase awareness of open educational resources on campuses.

For all FLVC services and resources, you can count on support from the FLVC Help Desk! FLVC’s statewide Help Desk provides phone, email, and live chat support. During the2022-23 academic year, the Help Desk handled more than 7,500 requests for assistance from colleges and universities across the state. FLVC also joined with library consortia from around the nation for the Professional Development Alliance (PDA) to conduct or share more than 80 free, live, online professional development workshops for public college and university libraries in Florida.

Reviewing these activities of the past year reminds me of how truly honored I am to work with the amazing staff at FLVC! Our staff are dedicated to providing exceptional library services and resources to all libraries across the Florida College System and State University System. They truly do incredible work!

Elijah