Cornell and Columbia Announce New Borrowing Program

Patrons at Cornell University Library and Columbia University Libraries can now take out materials from both libraries.

The reciprocal arrangement, announced July 15, is the first program of its kind between Ivy League institutions, according to a press release from Cornell, and it applies to current students, faculty and staff.

"Expanding our partnership in this way creates substantial benefits for researchers at both institutions," James G. Neal, vice president for information services and university librarian at Columbia, said in the press release. "We are now exploring rigorous coordination of collection building in print and electronic formats and deeper sharing of technology infrastructure and processes."

The 2CUL partnership between Columbia and Cornell has allowed the libraries to extend their collections and services. Some gains from the partnership include:

• sharing librarians in the fields of Slavic studies and Southeast Asian studies and catalogers in multiple languages;
• enhancing the depth and breadth of global collections by coordinating collection development of print and electronic formats;
• establishing a buying plan for Chinese materials that will reduce selection and processing costs at both institutions;
• and expediting borrowing between the libraries, with a two-day turnaround from one library to the other.

"We're choosing collaboration over competition. 2CUL redefines the kind of relationship that world-class research libraries have with one another," said Anne Kenney, the Carl A. Kroch University Librarian at Cornell. "These relationships are really the best way for libraries to build the breadth and depth we all need, and they are becoming the norm whether we're in financial straits or not."