How Three Academic Libraries Merged Their e-Resource Collections

Lessons learned from Commonwealth University Libraries

Posted on May 20, 2026 in Blog Posts

Libraries have to merge their electronic resource collections for any number of reasons—consortia agreements, institutional relationships, school closures—but it’s never a straightforward process. The differences between institutions and collections can present significant hurdles. In a new book from ACRL, Integrating Academic Libraries: When Institutions Merge, Taryn L. Bartholomew, a faculty librarian at Commonwealth University, outlines the messy and rewarding process of merging three institutions’ e-resource collections in her chapter contribution, “Merging Electronic Resources.”

Reprinted below in full under a CC BY-NC SA license, Bartholomew’s chapter offers a case study that other libraries might use as a template for similar mergers. Expect to learn how to plan a merger, form a working group, and execute the merger.

📙 Learn more and order a copy of Integrating Academic Libraries: When Institutions Merge

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by Taryn L. Bartholomew

Integrating three distinct academic libraries into one presents unique problems and challenges. This is especially true when merging electronic resource collections. Although the institutions that now form the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania (CU), formerly Bloomsburg University (BU), Lock Haven University (LHU), and Mansfield University (MU), were each a part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE), the differences in e-resource collections, policies, procedures, and budgets were significant. This chapter describes the personnel, communication, collaboration with vendors and information technologies (IT) support teams, and practical aspects taken to provide patrons at four campuses, including Lock Haven-Clearfield, access to all the libraries’ electronic resources. Most of this discussion takes place after I was hired as a CU librarian in January 2023.

Implementing the Integration (Prior to January 2023)

In an ideal situation, undertakings such as integrations, staffing reorganizations, and e-resource and collection mergers would be implemented with extensive planning and time. In this situation, employees at the three libraries were given a quick turnaround time to integrate resources and services. Library personnel began getting to know each other when the integration plan was tentative. By fall 2021, formal integration plans were underway and library administration, staff, and librarians formed working groups and were charged with specific integration tasks. In July of 2022, the three universities integrated to form Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania (CU), which officially launched in fall 2023.

Although librarians and library staff were charged with extending access of electronic library resources across all campuses,  there was not a systems or electronic resources librarian or dedicated electronic resources working group until spring 2022. Prior to the merger, Bloomsburg and Lock Haven each had one librarian who worked specifically with systems and electronic resources. After the announcement of the integration in 2021, both librarians retired. Having lost the personnel with the most expertise in the area, electronic resources was initially managed by the collection development working group (CDWG). In fact, several library sub-groups or working groups were formed to complete integration tasks. The systems working group also assisted with e-resources by managing IP, single sign-on, and authentication issues. The technical services working group assisted with cataloging individual and subscription e-book purchases.

The CDWG’s first task was to compile a list of e-resources available at each library with current pricing information. While the group did address individually subscribed to e-journals and e-books, at this time, most of their work was dedicated to subscription packages and databases. The coordinator of cataloging, interim coordinator of collection development librarian, and an acquisitions library technician, with the help of a few others, contacted vendors to request pricing and licensing information to reflect that of a merged institution. Once pricing information was confirmed, the CDWG would meet and recommend which databases to keep or drop. Those recommendations were shared with the library directors who made the final decision. Afterwards, the messy work of making resources available to all campuses began.

It was not until the official integration in July 2022 that an instruction and reference librarian’s job was reorganized to include management of electronic resources. Having only assisted with e-resources in the past, she found herself suddenly taking the lead on electronic resources and the accompanying electronic resources working group (ERWG).

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Electronic Resources Working Group (January 2023 to present)

Personnel

A lot of the most challenging integration work was completed prior to my hire in January of 2023, but there was, and still is, much to be done. I was hired as the sciences and health sciences librarian for CU and because of my background I was immediately asked to join the ERWG. At the time of this writing, personnel in this working group are as follows:

• One of the assistant directors of CU Libraries (oversees the group)
• Three librarians
  •  Electronic resources and reference librarian (point-person for the working group)
  • Research and instruction librarian
  • Sciences and health sciences librarian
• Three library technicians
  • Interlibrary loan library technician
  •  Systems and electronic resources support technician
  • Acquisitions technician
• Mansfield circulation supervisor

We are all located at different campuses. Admittedly, none of us has an in-depth background in electronic resources and we are mostly self-taught and learning as we go.

Communication

The working group meets as needed, sometimes as a whole and sometimes in smaller groups to address specific issues. We communicate primarily through email. During bi-weekly CDWG meetings, the electronic resources librarian gives updates on current or resolved e-resource issues. It is also in these meetings that decisions about subscription renewals and cancellations are discussed, with final decisions being made by the directors later.

Renewal and cancellation decisions are communicated by an assistant director to the coordinator of cataloging and to an acquisitions library technician. All three of these employees are located at BU and only the acquisitions library technician is a member of the electronic resources working group. This line of communication was in place prior to the integration. As a result, there are times that cancellation and renewal decisions or platform and vendor changes have not been communicated with ERWG. This also means these holdings are not updated or implemented properly. Much of this is due to personnel adjusting  to changes in reporting structure and job duties, which is a predictable complication of integration. To combat this, we have decided to share all subscription decisions at the bi-weekly CDWG meetings, which are attended by most members of the electronic resources working group.

Work Completed

In spring 2023, the list of known e-resources issues was still lengthy. The work needing to be completed included updating individual e-journal and e-book subscriptions and holdings, making historic entitlements available to all campuses, limiting access to campus specific e-resources, continuing to work with vendors to merge accounts, troubleshoot errors for resources that were renewed and merged, while continuing to deal with normal e-resource access issues, upgrades, etc. The first task I assisted with, in collaboration with the rest of the members of CDWG, was reviewing individual electronic journal titles. Many these e-journals were BU-only titles. At the time, the libraries were not using a centralized budget (this did not happen until academic year (AY) 2023/2024), and the budget for the current AY was still unknown. Current costs per use were compared with pricing quotes to expand access across all campuses. With so much of the budget unknown, we only kept a few titles deemed essential by liaison librarians and academic departments.

Shortly after, the e-resources librarian identified databases, e-books, and e-journals bundles that were available to only one campus. License agreements varied and some of these online resources were perpetual access purchases or historic entitlements. These resources needed to be expanded to all users and campuses or restricted to patrons of one specific campus. The decision was made to restrict most of these databases and packages to one campus because they are specific to a major available only at that campus. All our databases and bundled subscriptions are listed on one database page. Each resource limited to a specific campus is clearly labeled in the database A-Z list. To access one of these databases, all users, no matter their location, must authenticate through single sign-on. This is a setup unique to these resources. For shared resources, users on campus are already authenticated through the SSO process. CU libraries are members of the Keystone Library Network (KLN), a consortium of academic and research libraries that provides members with access to several services, including authentication and SSO services. We worked with the KLN HUB to limit access to these databases according to students’ home campus, which is a designation in an individual user’s IT profile. If a user’s designated home campus has access to a database, the user will login and authenticate to the platform as normal. If the user is not associated with a campus licensed to have access, they will return to the authentication screen after each login attempt and will not be able to access the product. The determination of “associated with a campus” is the home campus identified by CU. These subscriptions are reviewed before annual renewal to assess the need to extend access to other campuses.

Some of our databases are restricted because we are still in the process of negotiating with vendors. This is more specific to historic entitlements. Although we would like to extend existing access to all campuses, we are limited by what the vendor considers to be legal. I worked directly with one of these vendors to extend access to historic entitlements to all campuses. After months of back-and-forth negotiating, the vendor said they had to discuss options with other team members, and I have since had no replies to emails or phone calls. For now, this resource remains accessible only to one campus.

This is not the only time vendors have been confused by the integration. In the summer of 2022, I worked to resolve an issue with a database in which we had already merged accounts and made access available to all campuses. However, the campus that originally subscribed to the database was no longer able to access the resource. The vendor still had an active account for BU and an active account for CU. Because the BU account was still active and all the database links had changed to reflect new CU URL’s, BU patrons were not able to access the database. The vendor had to deactivate the BU account to restore access to all patrons. Overall, discussing the logistics and practical aspects of integration with vendors is something they have found confusing and challenging to work with.

Another major challenge to the implementation of additional online resources was troubleshooting. Staff at all campuses lacked the technical expertise to troubleshoot at any depth. While some issues have been as simple as updating holdings management or providing vendors with new IP ranges, we haven’t always been able to determine that quickly. There has been a lot of trial and error in determining what a specific issue is and the best way to communicate that issue to the ERWG.

These examples are few and are the only ones I can personally speak to. There have been many e-resource projects completed by other members of ERWG. While the list is still long, ERWG has been working to steadily to meet our goal of making e-resources available to all patrons at every campus.

Where We Are Now

We still have e-resources that have not been merged correctly, we are still working with vendors to request pricing or manage account updates, and we are still identifying access issues to resources we thought were accessible. The to-do list is long, and the projects range from small to large. With no single person able to dedicate their entire day to e-resources, only a small number of issues can be handled at a time. The varying level of expertise also creates a challenge in successfully managing troubleshooting. The electronic resources librarian does the bulk of this work and has a list of projects that have been marked as a priority by the library directors. If she needs help managing this, she reaches out to the group. If a new priority arises, she will ask for a member of the working group to take the lead on this. Not only are we still working to merge and make e-resources available to all patrons, but we are also managing upgrades, IP registry changes, and normal resource troubleshooting.

As we continue to make significant progress, we have learned many lessons along the way. One of the largest takeaways is that an electronic resources team needs to be set up as soon as integration talks begin. This is no small task and proper planning and time need to be allocated to this work. Formal lines of communication need to be clear. E-resources are affected by, and affect, many other aspects in libraries. This can’t be properly managed without clear communication structures for all library employees. Lastly, prioritization of tasks should be a combined effort of the electronic resources team, librarians, and library directors.

The CU libraries will continue to work towards our goal of making all electronic resources available to students, faculty, and staff at all campuses.

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