How Library Consortia Support Affordability and Student Success

Sponsored by Taylor & Francis

Recorded on 04/20/2026
Posted in The Authority File

Episode 466

In the third episode of this four-part series, our guests examine how library consortia support student success and affordability. First, Teri Gallaway, Executive Director of SCELC (Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium), explains how SCELC invests in the projects of member institutions and partner organizations to achieve their goals and extend services in affordability. Next, Genya O’Gara, Director of VIVA (Virtual Library of Virginia), outlines the findings of VIVA’s 2025 Virginia Course Materials Survey, discussing what’s changed since the last time VIVA ran the survey in 2021. Amy Pawlowski, Executive Director of OhioLINK, chats about OhioLINK’s affordable learning strategies, which include training librarians on finding OER resources, funding the course flip to OER, and building community across consortia around affordable materials. Last, Jill Morris, Executive Director of PALCI (Partnership for Academic Library Collaboration and Innovation), explores PALCI’s support for OER materials and the surveys, funding structures, and communication with members involved in this work.

About the guests:

Jill Morris headshot

Jill Morris
Executive Director
PALCI (Partnership for Academic Library Collaboration and Innovation)

Jill Morris is the Executive Director of PALCI (Partnership for Academic Library Collaboration and Innovation), an independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) consortium of more than 80 academic and research libraries across five states. With nearly two decades of experience leading large academic and multi-type consortium organizations, she has focused on building the governance structures, agreements, member engagement, and trusted partnerships that allow diverse libraries to achieve outcomes they could not reach independently.

Jill has been awarded multiple IMLS National Leadership Grants for Libraries, and her work has included leadership roles in the development of community-governed open source library infrastructure initiatives, including Hyku for Consortia and Project ReShare, which have produced tools now used broadly by libraries around the world to support system interoperability and a sustainable scholarly ecosystem. Jill is also the recipient of the 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award from UNC Chapel Hill’s School of Information and Library Science and the elected incoming 2026 Chair of the Board of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). She has been a longstanding contributor in the International Coalition of Library Consortia, a global community of approximately 200 consortia that advances shared goals through peer networking, best practices development, and expertise sharing.

Teri Gallaway headshot

Teri Gallaway
Executive Director
SCELC (Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium)

Teri Oaks Gallaway is the Executive Director at the SCELC Consortium in Los Angeles, CA. She previously served as the Executive Director at the LOUIS Consortium in Louisiana and as the Associate Director for Research, Technology, and Scholarship in Honors and Library Systems and Web Coordinator at Loyola University New Orleans. At LOUIS, she led statewide digital resource negotiations and was the architect for open educational resource initiatives that saved students millions in textbook costs. Under her direction, SCELC has expanded strategic partnerships and enhanced its role in shaping national conversations around academic e-resource licensing and library collaboration.

Amy Pawlowski headshot

Amy Pawlowski
Executive Director
OhioLINK

The Executive Director of OhioLINK, Amy Pawlowski has over 20 years of experience in special, public, and academic libraries and library-related private industry, with expertise in library technology and the e-books/e-journals publishing ecosystem. Working with the library deans and directors on OhioLINK’s Library Advisory Council and reporting to the Ohio Department of Higher Education, she is responsible for the organization’s vision and directing strategic projects, and leads contract negotiations for scholarly electronic resources. Pawlowski previously served seven years as the Deputy Director at OhioLINK.

She is a frequent presenter at professional conferences and is active in a number of professional organizations. She also serves on advisory boards for EBSCO Books, Springer Nature, Cambridge University Press (North America), and Clarivate. Pawlowski authored a chapter in No Shelf Required: E-books in Libraries.

Prior to joining OhioLINK, Amy managed web projects and e-resources for Cleveland Public Library and the CLEVNET consortium. She was the first Partner Services Manager at Overdrive, Inc., a digital distributor library content, and served as archivist for the world-renowned Cleveland Orchestra.

Genya O'Gara headshot

Genya O’Gara
Director
VIVA (Virtual Library of Virginia)

Genya M. O’Gara is the Director of VIVA, Virginia’s statewide academic library consortium serving 70 academic institutions across the Commonwealth. She has been with VIVA since 2015, serving in a series of leadership roles before becoming director. Prior to VIVA, Genya served as Director of Collections at James Madison University and held multiple positions at NC State University across Special Collections and Collection Management. Genya’s perspective on consortial strategy and collaborative collection building is informed by her exploration of evolving models of content development and the role consortia and academic libraries play in the rapidly shifting scholarly publishing landscape. She holds a Master of Library Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor’s degree from the Evergreen State College.

Enjoy the conversation? Listen to the rest of the series:

Check out our previous series with Taylor & Francis:
– Why Libraries Need to Demonstrate Value to University Administration
– Data Sharing in the Humanities and Social Sciences
– Introducing Our Guests and the Goals of Open Research
– Publisher-Library Discussions on OA and the Challenges of Author Charges

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