CCL-EAR Committee Chair Report

By Tamara Weintraub, Palomar College

When my college closed to on-campus classes and services back in March 2020, I remember thinking that things would be back to “normal” within a few weeks. Yet here we are in Fall 2021, starting a third academic year where no decision or action occurs without considering the effects of COVID-19. Much of what we do continues to occur remotely, and although most California Community College (CCC) Libraries appear to be offering some level of on-campus services and resources to students this term, we are operating in a very different world from the one we shut our doors to 19 months ago. We successfully reinvented all the essential things we do for a remote learning environment; now we face the challenge of restoring much appreciated in-person programs in a way that is safe and responsive to our students and staff.

During this entire time, one thing has remained constant: library e-resources and the Council of Chief Librarian Electronic Access & Resources Committee, or CCL-EAR.  As I wrote in last September’s Outlook, the value of having an advocacy group (CCL-EAR), processes (product reviews, ordering system), and resources (Consortium products) already in place to serve our community in a largely-remote learning environment proved to be invaluable. We may experience other hiccups in our work, but e-resources provide information continuity to both us and our students.

I’m proud of the way the CCL-EAR Committee supports CCCs in meaningful and familiar ways. Last year we wrote and published several product reviews (ScienceDirect College Edition, Leganto, LibGuides vs LibGuides CMS, LibAnswers, Statistics Resource Comparison, Visible Body); undertook projects that help us help member libraries meet their e-resource needs (annual survey of member libraries, shared ebook deselection project); and supported the antiracist and inclusive values of our community by exploring ways to assess our content and providers through an equity lens.

Moving forward for 2021/22, we will continue to pursue initiatives and respond to the needs of our library community, including:

• Examine products and write reviews to help Consortium members select the most appropriate products for their colleges.
• Seek out and examine content with an equity lens. CCL-EAR is committed to ensuring that Consortium products accurately represent the many dimensions of diversity in perspective, subject matter, authorship, and audience.
• Proactively address our members’ values and concerns with vendors, including content inclusiveness, accessibility, integrity, and user privacy.
• Finish the 2nd CCLC NetLibrary/EBSCO eBooks shared collection deselection project. CCL-EAR will reconsider appealed titles and start the process of removing deselected titles.

Before any titles are removed, communications about how this will be done, and timelines will be sent out through the CCL listserv. We will also work on a procedure for ongoing review and deselection of shared ebooks moving forward.

CCL-EAR is composed of volunteers from CCL member libraries. We share the same interests and concerns as you and will address these together. Feel free to reach out to me or your Regional Representative, or attend CCL-EAR meetings (all CCL members welcome). Learn more about who we are, what is involved, and meeting dates and times.