Finding our Footing in our Values

A letter from Isaac Gilman, Executive Director

Since I was young, my life has been synced with the academic calendar; my sense of expectation for what a new year will bring has long been tied to August. And with that, there has always been uncertainty, whether I was a student, librarian, or administrator: who will I meet, what will we accomplish, what unexpected joys or challenges await?

The first disruption to my standard sense of annual uncertainty was in the pandemic (by ‘standard’, I mean uncertainty that operates within a knowable continuum of what could happen). It was hard to predict what the world, let alone university or library operations, would look like month to month. However, in the midst of that, there was a grounding in the assurance that, from the government to the private sector to our institutions, we were all working towards the goal of recovery.

As we start this new academic year, there is a similar disruptive uncertainty; the federal government has dismantled the rules by which higher education and research operate, and there is no assurance that government and institutions are working toward shared goals. Without that, we are left with a need to ground ourselves, which will allow us to respond with clarity to whatever comes next.

At the core of this is understanding and affirming who we are. This has been called the first step in scenario positioning for organizations (we can’t plan for things we can’t imagine, but we can position ourselves to respond when they happen). As part of the Alliance’s strategic planning process, the Board and Council have re-affirmed our mission and vision, and this past month endorsed a new set of values to guide us:

• Collaboration & Collective Action
• Access, Equity & Affordability
• Stewardship & Sustainability
• Leadership & Innovation
• Social & Community Responsibility

These are not new values for the Alliance; they are priorities we have held for many years. But we are claiming them explicitly now as who we are. And when more disruption comes, we will be able to hold ourselves accountable in the ways we choose to respond.

However, our values are intended not only to guide our response to the unexpected, but also to inform our proactive plans—because even in the face of uncertainty, we still have goals for what we would like to achieve together. This summer, the Alliance Council and central staff have had opportunities to reflect on their individual and shared aspirations, and last month over 200 people from member libraries participated in an Alliance Connections (AllCon) session focused on generating even more ideas. Happily (and perhaps not surprisingly), the aspirations shared so far have reflected our values. As an example, within the AllCon session, there was significant interest in exploring how Alliance members could share resources and capacity (e.g. digitization equipment), and how we could structure our collaboration to include more libraries in our region.

The next step in our strategic planning (positioning?) process will be for the Board and Council to review all of the aspirations that have been shared and—within the context of our mission and values—to identify priority areas for us. That work should be done this fall, and then in the winter, we will begin discussing what actions we can take to move those priorities forward.

As we head into a fall term that feels more ungrounded than any before it, I am grateful to be part of a community that knows who we are and how we want to be in the world. I look forward to deciding together where we will go next, and I invite you to continue to share your ideas with me throughout this year. 

Alliance Connections 2025 Wrap-Up

We appreciated getting together with all of you for Alliance Connections (AllCon)! We had 22 sessions across three days that reflected both the activities of our libraries and our consortial programs and services. 345 Alliance library workers joined the event, and over 60 presenters, facilitators, and hosts shared their experiences and provided support.

We’ve started reviewing the evaluation responses, and what we’ve seen tells us that folks found opportunities for learning and building community with each other. The program committee will finalize the evaluation report and determine recommendations for the next AllCon, which will be in 2027.

All recordings and materials are posted online, though some sessions were not recorded to allow greater interaction and support confidentiality. To find a recording from a specific session, we recommend locating that session from the schedule and then selecting the link to go directly to the session’s details on the session descriptions page.

We’d like to extend our sincere thanks: Thank you to participants for attending and engaging with each other. Thank you to presenters for sharing your time, efforts, and expertise. And especially thank you to the AllCon Program Committee for your diligence and good humor as we organized the event – Amber Mak (UW HSL), Joanna Hunt (CWU), Roman Block (OHSU), and Sara Trott (OSU).

Becky Paulson joins Alliance staff as new Electronic Resources Specialist

Becky Paulson will be joining the central staff as Orbis Cascade’s new Electronic Resource Specialist.

Becky brings more than 20 years of professional experience from her roles at Seattle Pacific University, where she started as Public Services Librarian and then transitioned to the position of Acquisitions Librarian. 

Becky is a past chair of the Alliance Acquisitions Working Group, and served on the Alliance’s Collaborative Technical Services Team and the Collaborative Workforce Inventory Working Group. She earned her MLIS from University of Washington and her MBA from Seattle Pacific.  Becky started in her new role as E-Resources Specialist on August 11. Welcome, Becky!