A letter from John Wilkin

In May, 2023, I wrote to you, our community, to discuss our work at Lyrasis. A part of my goal was to introduce myself to you. I also wanted to clearly describe the role we at Lyrasis play in the community, and to describe the broad shape of the efforts we are undertaking. 

Year 1 | Message Recap 

So much of what I wrote to you then remains true today. My message underscores the importance of collaboration with you, our community. Among other things, I wrote about the importance of addressing common problems with shared strategies, and the role that Lyrasis can play in that work. I discussed our focus on using our growing capacity at Lyrasis to help you have greater impact and serve your constituents more effectively. I emphasized the important role of Lyrasis’ governance in ensuring alignment with your needs. I underscored the importance of our focus on sustainability and sustainable strategies. And I made clear my appreciation for the role of trust – earning your trust – in making all of this work.

Year 2 | Building On A Solid Foundation

In the year that followed my initial communication about strategic directions, we worked industriously to ground that vision in a long-term, sustainable strategy. The organizational structures and hiring we put in place have allowed us to provide better support to the Community Supported Technologies that find a home in Lyrasis, and the Hosting Services we deploy. In Content and Scholarly Communication Initiatives (CSCI), we have intensified efforts to leverage licensing work to advance equity and, as part of our work in Open Access, we are collaborating to advance broader initiatives. Internally, we have devoted considerable energy to strengthening our organization to ensure that our very talented staff have a sense of ownership in our work and its impact. Our finances are strong, and governance continues to be engaged in shaping these directions and making sure we are responsive and accountable to you, the community we serve.

I promised three installments of discussions about the way that Lyrasis serves as the connective tissue to advance the interests of members of our community. Subsequent to that initial essay, two members of our leadership team joined me in writing about two of the three areas of focus for our work at Lyrasis. Senior Director Celeste Feather took a deep dive into Current Trends and Strategic Directions in Content and Scholarly Communication Initiatives (CSCI). Senior Director Laurie Arp explained the way that our programs in Community Supported Technologies and Hosting Services support Realigning Systems and Services to Increase Your Impact.

Next Steps | Three-Pronged Approach

Today, I renew the dialogue we initiated with those first three essays, reminding you of my initial message and introducing the final installment of the discussion of our three-part strategy. In a new essay, Empowering Libraries to Shape the Future of Ebooks, Michael Atwood, Senior Director of Ebooks and Community Engagement (EBCE), digs deeper into our work in this area, expanding on and adding nuance to what I described last year: 

Ebooks and the ebook marketplace present a challenge for many of our libraries, whether because of a cacophony of reading and discovery services, or because Open Access ebooks are rarely integrated into the mainstream of acquisition, preservation and discovery environments. With our investments in The Palace Project and BiblioLabs beginning in 2021, Lyrasis is cultivating a rich set of reading and content hosting tools to help address these challenges and create a more robust user experience, while inviting public libraries into our community in a more meaningful way than ever before.

It has been no surprise to us that this third area would prove to be the most challenging part of our work at Lyrasis. Support from you, our community, has been critical, as has been the generous financial support of the Knight Foundation. Credible offerings in this space require solid engineering and a complex array of publisher agreements. All of that’s true, but the biggest challenge has been creating meaningful offerings for you, our constituency. We knew that you did not need one more competing ebook vendor, and that displacing existing vendors was at best a foolish goal. In the last essay of our initial planned series, we describe the array of offerings we have assembled in EBCE. We believe we have a sustainable strategy but, more importantly, we believe that as a library organization partnering with you, we have created something that allows you to prioritize your interests and amplify your impact with your communities.

I want to close with a note of gratitude for all the support you have given us and share my optimism that Lyrasis can succeed as your partner, collaborating to help you succeed. As a library-owned and library-directed organization, we are committed to helping you have greater impact and do your work more effectively. The last year has been energizing for us at Lyrasis and we look forward to partnering with you in the years to come.