NWDA Membership

What NWDA Members Receive

NWDA members receive a number of benefits from membership. The most important benefit of consortium membership is that the consortium can do things that most of our members would not be able to do on their own. Membership is a cost-effective way to expand services and improve efficiency. The increased access that EAD finding aids offer bolsters institution's ability to serve their researchers.

Members gain the ability to create EAD finding aids and add those finding aids to the NWDA database, which provides a cross-search capability for member institutions, currently 28 across five states, and places members' collections into context with related collections from other institutions. In a recent test, the NWDA database provided more comprehensive coverage of archival and special collections materials in the Northwest than WorldCat, the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections, or Summit.

In support of this tool, the consortium allocates the staffing to:

• Provide database administration;
• Develop and program the search and retrieval system (one of the more advanced SR systems available for a database of EAD finding aids);
• Develop and support tools for encoding and verifying the compliance of finding aids;
• Produce reports in support of assessment activities;
• Support and respond to usability testing;
• Support stylesheet programming and maintenance;
• Provide technical consultation on the program's best practices;
• Provide long-term maintenance in the form of global changes/updates.

The consortium also centralizes a number of other technical functions:

• Purchase of software and hardware for the search and retrieval system;
• Stylesheet development and support;
• Website support;
• Email communications;
• Usability testing;
• Developing and maintaining the consortium's best practices;
• Dealing with compliance issues.

In support of the technical and training functions, the consortium provides administrative, financial, and marketing services. These include:

• Governance;
• Communications in and out of the consortium;
• Coordination of the overall program;
• Money management;
• Grant administration;
• Dissemination to research communities;
• General administrative support;
• Identifying and applying for grants;
• Negotiation and management for contracted services;
• Recruiting new members;
• Developing new programs.

NWDA program members also have some role in the development of the Digital Services area of the Alliance strategic initiatives, though that is ultimately determined by Council and the Digital Services Team. When new services are developed in those areas, NWDA members will be able to opt in or out of those services.

What NWDA Members Give

In exchange for all of the above, members give money (membership fees) and time (service on administrative or working groups). The extent to which members contribute finding aids to the database is entirely at the discretion of the member; the consortium does not set specific yearly quotas or goals for its members to meet.

NWDA members need not be full members of the Orbis Cascade Alliance.

NWDA members retain copyright of the finding aids they place in the NWDA database and receive all due credit for their participation in all dissemination efforts.

Adding and Withdrawing Members

NWDA welcomes new members and has ongoing programs to recruit and train new members. Prospective member institutions must be located in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Idaho, or Montana; have archival collections; and have the capacity to both contribute fees and to give time to governance and committee work.

In their first year of membership, new participants pay a one-time $1,000 start-up fee plus associated trainer travel costs and that portion of the annual fee that is assessed equally to every member, prorated according to start date. Each participating institution designates one individual to represent it on the NWDA Committee. Those representatives will attend a yearly in-person held in conjunction with the annual meetings of Northwest Archivists.

Membership fees for new and existing members in FY11 (July 2010-June 2011) are:

•    Large public 4-year academic (more than 15,000 FTE students): $7070
•    Medium public 4-year academic (10,000-15,000 FTE students): $3640
•    Small public 4-year academic (less than 10,000 FTE students): $1930
•    Public 2-year academic: $1930
•    Private 4-year academic: $3640
•    Non-academic (Historical society, museum, state library, state archives, municipal archives): $3640

The above fees give an institution unlimited capability to contribute finding aids to the database. Institutions that wish to participate in a smaller way, in the short or long term, by having 20 or less finding aids in the database, receive a 25% discount on their membership category fee so long as they have 20 or less finding aids. Once they exceed 20 finding aids, they relinquish the 25% discount in the following fiscal year.

NWDA members sign a general Memorandum of Understanding with the Orbis Cascade Alliance.

As with any program, institutions may decided to discontinue participation at some point. Members who wish to withdraw have two options:

• Withdraw from NWDA but continue to have finding aids accessible via the NWDA web site. Former members retain the right to modify and update their finding aids, but relinquish their voice in consortium administration and the presentation of finding aids. For this options, former members pay a one-time fee of $300 to be withdrawn from the administrative structure and an annual maintenance fee of $150 per finding aid. 
  
• Withdraw completely from NWDA, and remove finding aids from the NWDA database. For this option, the withdrawing member is responsible for all costs associated with the removal of finding aids from the technical infrastructure and for removing the institution from the administrative infrastructure, for which the one-time fee is $600.
  

If your institution is interested in participating, please contact NWDA staff!