Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-22-2015
Volume
Volume 11
Issue
3
Journal
Journal of Map & Geography Libraries: Advances in Geospatial Information, Collections & Archives
First Page
330
URL with Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15420353.2015.1043067
Last Page
358
Abstract
Special Issue: Geospatial Data Management, Curation, and Preservation - Part 2
The Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) is a consortium of the twenty-one university libraries in Ontario, Canada. Since 1967, OCUL member institutions have worked together to share costs and workload through collective purchasing and licensing of information resources and more recently through the establishment of a shared digital infrastructure known as Scholars Portal. Under the auspices of OCUL, Ontario's university map librarians formed the OCUL Map Group in 1973 to seek opportunities to communicate and collaborate to improve the collections and services they offer their users. The opportunities provided by collaboration have ensured a greater capacity to manage evolving collections of geospatial data. The group has served as a community of practice, which has provided educational opportunities and facilitated collaborative problem solving through a listserv, conference calls, and face-to-face meetings. This collegial environment has also led to the completion of a number of projects, which have resulted in the creation of new technical infrastructures and strategies for sharing the workload of data management tasks. This paper discusses the role of collaboration in OCUL projects and offers some suggestions for others considering embarking on collaborations of their own.
Notes
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in
Journal of Map & Geography Libraries: Advances in Geospatial Information, Collections & Archives
on 22 DEC 2015, available online:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15420353.2015.1043067