The Orbis Cascade Alliance has launched its FY27-FY29 strategic plan, following a collaborative process that began in April 2025. This process, which included input from member library leaders and staff and Alliance central staff, resulted in:

• Shared understanding and affirmation of the Alliance’s current mission and vision
• Agreement on an updated set of values to guide both the Alliance’s internal work and external engagement
• Identification of four strategic priorities that reflect our shared aspirations for the Alliance through FY2029

The strategic priorities below, endorsed by the Alliance Council and approved by the Alliance Board of Directors, emphasize growth and development in areas of existing strength, with the goal of deepening members’ collaboration for shared benefit.

Work to advance these priorities is identified through annual Alliance planning processes. To suggest initiatives in support of these priorities, Alliance Council members and member library employees should submit initial ideas through the designated webform.

Expand the materials/collections we share through coordinating on policies, practices, and systems

Build on the Alliance’s successful history of physical resource sharing of circulating collections; this could include, but is not limited to:

• Creating consistent, reliable practices and systems for lending/borrowing digital materials (e.g. articles, book chapters, et al.)
• Coordinating collection development activities to build complementary local collections of digital materials that can be shared across Alliance members
• Developing practices and systems for digitization and delivery of archival or special collection materials

Use collective leverage to ensure fair, sustainable, and transparent vendor pricing and terms favorable to our user communities

Build on the Alliance’s success in centralized negotiations by seeking consensus around shared needs and negotiation priorities and demonstrating greater solidarity in reaching agreements that best meet members’ diverse needs; this could include, but is not limited to:

• Collaborating on strategies to educate campus communities in support of library negotiating positions
• Making shared decisions to move away from vendor relationships that prioritize vendors’ business strategies over user communities’ needs
• Pushing for agreement terms that are relevant and attainable for the Alliance’s broad variety of institutions
• Prioritizing flexible ownership and access of scholarly content that recognizes authors’ and readers’ needs

Broaden opportunities for collaboration, shared services, and capacity-building through strategic standardization of systems and practices

Optimize the flexibility, interoperability, and accessibility of member libraries’ systems and practices, and better enable future collective change; this could include, but is not limited to:

• Moving towards a more shared ILS and/or discovery experience to better enable shared accessibility testing; external partnerships (e.g. resource sharing with other Alma consortia); and collective adoption of new practices of functionalities
• Increasing opportunities for shared learning across members through standardization of workflows
• Intentionally creating a shared student experience of specific library systems, resources, or practices across Alliance member libraries

Strengthen the Alliance’s regional impact by creating new opportunities to engage with other libraries and cultural heritage organizations in the Pacific Northwest

Extend the Alliance community and impact through increased participation and collaboration; this could include, but is not limited to:

• Strengthening affiliate relationships through outreach, growing overall affiliate membership, and developing stronger onboarding for affiliates
• Expanding the Alliance’s professional development and training programs to meet existing needs within the region
• Developing new collaborations and shared services between Alliance members and both non-member academic libraries and public libraries

The Alliance will share progress on these priorities through multiple forums, including member events, email lists, and its newsletter.