Dear Colleague,

Impact, Innovation and Investment in you! What a great set of words to signal to you, our members, where our focus will be as our FY 2018 begins. It is also the theme for our 2nd Annual Member Summit, October 11-12 in Philadelphia this year. Click here to register and learn more.

In this August CEO update, I will share with you some of my thoughts for the coming year and how we plan to tackle the plethora of opportunities that awaits us. I will also showcase some of the key accomplishments undertaken on your behalf by our world-class LYRASIS team.

IMPACT – Change cannot occur without some major investments. I am pleased to announce that for the second year, we will again be investing $100,000 directly in our members via the LYRASIS Catalyst Fund. The October 11-12 Annual Member Summit in Philadelphia is the perfect setting to network and pitch your concepts before the formal submission cycle begins in early 2018. To see a list of the winning 2017 Catalyst Fund projects, click here.

INNOVATION – To support our emphasis on innovation, we added 6 new staff members in FY 2017 focused on open source software development and growth. They bring renowned expertise on software, engineering and technology skills that will be used to deliver innovation in the areas of Open Source Software, eResources and Digital Services (hosting, migration and access).

INVESTMENT – In addition to the fiscal and staff investments listed above, we are continuing to build out our Leaders Circle and Leaders Forum member engagement programs. The Leaders Circle is an open group for any of our members who have the bandwidth and interest to not just use the many quality and cost effective programs and services that LYRASIS offers, but who want to be part of the collective voice that determines what community changes are needed and where LYRASIS should be focusing its efforts. Please reach out to me about the Leaders Circle as we think it will help you future proof your institution in addition to enriching you professionally. Our initial goal was 50 Leaders Circles members by July 1, 2017. We are thrilled to announce we now have 75 institutions from 4 countries. We also have select scholarship seats open for those members who want to join the Leaders Circle and bring their innovation ideas and needs to the table, but have fiscal constraints.

Going forward in FY 2018, our goal is to test, develop and implement new forms of services, programs and communities that elevate your library, archive or museum. Your library, archive or museum will benefit from our collaborative and cross community R&D efforts in ways that would be less possible on your own. We continue to strive to lower both your costs, your time investment and the risks to explore new markets: allow us to be your partner in these endeavors. We are continuing to build our key partnerships and in the last year have received, on your behalf, more than $2.5M in grants from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, IMLS and others. You will see announcements pertaining to special programs we are hosting, including our Open Source Software Sustainability Conference. What do these things mean to you? In both traditional and non-traditional ways LYRASIS allows you, our members, to have a virtual seat, participate and benefit-by-extension in large scale discussions and at the same time reap the benefits of gains coming out of super small and innovative scalable experiments.

To learn more about all our new initiatives and to have a voice in the direction of our next year and beyond, be sure to join us at our 2nd Annual Member Summit in Philadelphia October 11-12. This is a member benefit for you, and attendance is free for you and one member of your staff. I’m especially excited that this year Deanna Marcum, senior advisor to Ithaka S+R’s program areas in Educational Transformation and Libraries & Scholarly Communication, and a personal friend, will be our exciting keynote.

Sincerely,

Robert Miller
CEO of LYRASIS