Council Community of Practice
Description: The Council Community of Practice provides a dedicated forum for Orbis Cascade Alliance leaders to connect with one another. This informal peer network is a place to engage in candid discussion, discuss timely leadership topics, and explore emerging trends and best practices in academic library leadership.
Membership: Open to current members of Alliance Council.
Active Communities of Practice
To contact current community facilitators and/or request information about joining a community of practice, please email Elizabeth Duell.
Affordable Course Materials Community of Practice (CoP)
Description: The Affordable Course Materials Community of Practice (CoP) is a collaborative group for librarians and other stakeholders dedicated to making higher education more affordable. This CoP will serve as a hub for sharing best practices and experiences, fostering collaboration, and strengthening advocacy efforts to help institutions implement sustainable solutions. Through regular engagement, the community will explore diverse strategies to improve the affordability of course materials.
Membership: Open to all personnel at Alliance member libraries as well as community members and regional partners working towards course materials affordability.
Deputy Library Leaders Community of Practice (CoP)
Description: This community will likely need a mix of planned and free discussion time. Some topics will be timely, while others will need to be generated by the group through an interest survey. The impact of these activities is to create a space for AD/AULs to share and learn from one another; to build skills to perform their current jobs more effectively, and prepare them for future advancement.
Membership: Membership in this community is not identified by title alone. Members should be from Orbis Cascade Alliance schools and hold roles that report directly to the head of the library and supervise employees (any type/classification). In addition, they should be responsible for leading in one or more areas and represent the library within the wider university/college and/or the library profession. There are no limitations on the number of members that join from the same institution.
Library of Things Community of Practice
Description: The Library of Things (LoT) Community of Practice (CoP) is a group of fun, supportive library staff who are interested in creating, developing, maintaining, and promoting a Library of Things collection in their library. This informal CoP is a place to ask questions, share ideas, and learn from each other about these unique collections. A Library of Things or lending technology collection can be anything from chargers to markers, laptops to board games, and everything in between!
Membership: Membership is open to anyone who works in an academic library and wants to engage with others who find Libraries of Things fascinating.
Search Advocate Community of Practice
Description: The Search Advocate Community of Practice seeks to create meaningful connections and professional networks across member institutions in support of equitable hiring practices. The CoP is centered on the principles and application of Search Advocacy as it is taught through Oregon State University and other related programs, but extends to search and hiring-related topics that are relevant for Alliance library personnel.
Membership: Open to all personnel at Alliance member libraries and academic library personnel from other institutions.