Dear Colleague,
This is one of my favorite letters to write each year. I enjoy the opportunity to share with you the work that my talented, world-class LYRASIS team and your elected Board of Trustees has undertaken on behalf of you, our valued public and academic libraries and our museum, archive and gallery members.
It has been an exciting and productive year on many fronts. Each project we undertake at LYRASIS is measured against our unwavering commitment to use our resources and energies to accomplish the following:
- Helping each member ‘punch’ above their weight and leveraging our collective membership strength to accomplish your larger objectives;
- Including all members in the national and global conversations that impact the needs of you and your patrons, thus ensuring your voices are heard; and
- Always recognizing that each member institution’s core strength is their localness and knowledge of their own community.
The following are five highlights I want to share with you. A full and more detailed update will be found in our Annual Report, which will be released in the coming weeks.
Leaders Circle
This group engages those members who want to be a part of setting strategy and direction for LYRASIS. We are thrilled to announce that in June, Middlebury College became the 100th member of the Leaders Circle. The Leaders Circle is part think tank, part product and program development, and helps deploy and invest staff and fiscal resources of LYRASIS. Click here to learn more.
The Catalyst Fund
This is our innovation kick starter that is open to all our 1,000+ members. Thirteen projects have now been funded by LYRASIS over the past two years. We have invested more than $300,000 into member-initiated programs. What is the benefit to you? Shared R&D lowers the individual institutional cost (and risk!) of innovation, while allowing the entire community to benefit from sustainable, scalable, new ideas. Click here to learn more.
Public Libraries
LYRASIS is not just about academic libraries. We have embraced the commitment of our public library members to advance literacy in their communities. Along with our partner, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), we have completed a national pilot of SimplyE and the next group of adopters are currently signing up. SimplyE is a library-focused, cloud based, multi-tenant eBook platform that allows a local public library to get national-scale benefits including content selection, price and impact. Email Carissa Egan to learn more.
It Takes A Village (ITAV) Sustainability Guidebook
With funding from IMLS, Team LYRASIS asked ourselves the question: why do so many new programs fail, and what is the secret for those that are successful? It Takes A Village worked with and studied 27 other national and global projects to harvest the best lessons learned about how to build sustainable programs. The output is both a methodology and road map that can be applied to all types of programs. Invite us to your staff meetings to learn more! Click here to access the Guidebook.
Leaders Forums, Member Summit and more
My last shout out is to thank you for the opportunity to meet more than 500 members through our regional Leaders Forums, our national Member Summit and through our presence at conferences and meetings across the United States and globally. This year’s Member Summit will be in Nashville, TN, October 24-25. As a member, there is no fee for you to attend and we look forward to working together on new ideas and initiatives in real time. Registration is now open – we hope to see you there!
So, at the end of the day, how does LYRASIS add value to you? We are reinvesting dollars into innovative, impactful programs that will directly benefit you. We have lowered your fees and costs in key service areas, including hosting and training, and we have not raised our prices or membership dues in 3 years. If you would like to learn more about how to maximize your membership, we would be happy to review your personal Member Snapshot (sent with membership renewals this year) with you at any time. Email Member Support to set up a meeting.
Before I sign off, I would like to ask you to share your thoughts with me about innovation and how it works in your institution. This short survey should take no more than 5 minutes of your time, and feel free to forward it to any of your team members who you think may have information to share.
On behalf of my entire team and Board, thank you for supporting Team LYRASIS!
Sincerely,
Robert Miller
Chief Executive Officer, LYRASIS
robert.miller@lyrasis.org