Maggie Farrell, Dean of Libraries at the University of Wyoming, announces to the ASUW that the Coe Library’s bid to become a member of the Greater Western
Library Alliance was a success.
The University of Wyoming’s Coe Library was accepted this month into a consortium of research libraries known as the Greater Western Library Alliance.
Membership into the cooperative alliance of libraries is the culmination of a nearly ten-year effort to build a better, more effective research library and gain entry back into the organization.
The library dropped membership to the GWLA in the 1990’s due to budgetary reasons. In 2004, the library reapplied for membership and was denied.
“Our collections were too small and not considered research caliber. And funding for collections was not being sustained,” Dean of Libraries Maggie Farrell said. “It appeared as though there was not a commitment by the university to build and sustain a research collection.”
After receiving the news, President Tom Buchanan began to advocate for an increase in legislative funding specifically for the library collections. The Wyoming Legislature granted increases in 2007 and the following two years.
In 2010, the legislature decreased the university budget by 10 percent, which cut $4.3 million out of building the library collection. The state and university have since made up that cut with subsequent increases in state funding and a tuition increase set to begin in 2013.
Combined with the $50 million renovation complete with a new addition finished in 2009, Coe Library applied again last year to the GWLA and was accepted. More than $9 million have been invested in collections to obtain that goal.
Benefits of GWLA membership include priority lending, participation in a purchasing co-op, eligibility for grants and training benefits.
Priority lending is an important perk, Farrell said, because Coe Library borrows 30,000 items each year from other libraries. Once the membership goes into effect in January, the purchasing co-op will save the library thousands of dollars annually.
The library also lends 76,000 items annually to other institutions.
“It’s better to lend more than you borrow. Just like a bank with money,” Farrell said.
Libraries in the region were eager to include the Coe Library in the alliance due to its extensive collection on the history of the American West.
The GWLA is an alliance of 32 libraries in the central and western regions of the United States. Membership into the more prestigious Association of Research Libraries, which includes only 120 libraries in the USA and Canada, is a potential future goal.
For now, the library will focus on sustaining the collections and studying how best to meet the needs of the students.
“The library is the laboratory for the humanities. We’re trying to creative about creating spaces for that,” Farrell said.
