2 Community-Owned and -Led Shared Technology Services: BC Libraries Cooperative

About the BC Libraries Cooperative

To understand the BC Libraries Cooperative, it is helpful to understand the context in which it was formed. Public libraries in BC are mostly funded by their municipalities or regional districts, with provincial funding typically comprising only around 10 percent of their annual operating budgets. As such, the provincial funder is always looking for ways to make those limited funds benefit all 71 public library systems to the highest degree.

All public libraries (indeed almost all libraries of any stripe) use Integrated Library Software (ILS) – software that contains records of its holdings, its patrons, and their transactions (books checked out, items due, etc.). In the early 2000s, libraries could choose from a competitive market of ILS software providers. However, in the middle 2000s this changed as ILS firms merged or were acquired by venture capital. This change resulted in less competition in the market and upward pressure on price for what should have been classified as somewhat “commodity” software (i.e., the use cases and feature sets across ILS – and libraries – were fairly static, well known, and standardized). And all of this was at a time when library budgets weren’t increasing compared to the increase in services and costs. And in some cases, the smallest libraries had yet to automate at all.

In 2006, the Public Libraries Branch followed the advice of a provincial ILS Advisory Board made up of library directors from around the province. At that point, an opportunity arose to stabilize these costs for many of the province’s libraries and save them money through an investment in the operation of an ILS platform that could be shared across the public libraries in B.C. The pre-existing arrangement between libraries to share their collections in the form of interlibrary loans also influenced this decision. In the past, that had been facilitated by standalone commercial software but a shared ILS was deemed more effective.

Through a consultative process, the software Evergreen was chosen as the shared ILS platform. As an open-source software, there were several benefits, including the absence of ongoing (and often arbitrary) license fees as well as the permissions to develop, modify, and learn from the software.

In 2007, the Public Libraries Services Branch in partnership with public libraries launched an ILS hosting and support service called Sitka, based on the Evergreen open-source software. The Sitka service gave each participating library its own online catalogue and user base on a shared technology instance, and provided migration and startup support, ongoing training, and end-user support for the ILS software to libraries in BC that opted in.

Early on it became clear there was a need for a discrete entity outside of the Ministry of Education to operate the service: one that could make purchases, hire staff, and most importantly, be governed by the users of the system itself. Adoption of the service was opt-in, completely at the discretion of each library, so there needed to be a mechanism to ensure it reflected their priorities and needs.

After much deliberation amongst the participating libraries and the Ministry, a cooperative structure was chosen for that new entity, and in 2009 the BC Libraries Cooperative (hereafter the “Co-op” or “BCLC”) was founded.

While the Ministry through the Public Libraries Branch provided initial startup and then ongoing funding for the Co-op services, since its inception the Co-op has always had a mandate to reduce its reliance on provincial funding and become more self-sustaining. One way this occurs is through service fees applied to Co-op services and offering contractive services to other bodies for services.

Co-op has always charged members fees to participate in services. In the case of BC members, these fees were partly underwritten by the provincial funding. In addition to these membership service fees and at the direction of its members, the Co-op has always sought to expand the set of services it provides to members as well as expand the membership base itself. It aims to assist libraries further and, over time, reduce the overall percentage of the Co-op’s budget’s dependence on provincial contributions. As the Libraries Branch is meant to support BC public libraries specifically, since its initial founding, the Co-op has expanded both its service offerings and its membership in several ways:

• The core Sitka offering now serves 50 of BC’s 71 public libraries as well as another 20 libraries from Manitoba. Sitka has also expanded to now serve several public post-secondary institutions from BC, Manitoba and Ontario, as well as private post-secondaries. Sitka now also provides ILS service to a number of K-12 jurisdictions and “childhood resource” and literacy centers around BC.
• In 2012, the Co-op took over one brokering province-wide licensing deals for digital resources. This collective negotiation creates savings because of the economy of scale and centralized billing administration. This service was later expanded to include brokering licensed content for a consortium of libraries in Manitoba.
• In 2012, the Co-op transitioned 30 BC libraries off an aging website hosting platform onto a newly developed WordPress-backed service called LibPress. Since these initial libraries were migrated, that service has expanded to include another 20 BC libraries and 20 Manitoba libraries.
• In 2013, the Co-op launched an ambitious online library service for people with print disabilities, called the National Network for Equitable Library Service or NNELS. This service receives core funding from five provinces and three territories (BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon), and also serves users in non-funding provinces on a patron-request driven model. This service allows print-disabled patrons to access a growing collection of works in a variety of alternate formats. In addition, with funding from the Federal Government, this service became a leader in accessible publishing in Canada, supporting publishers in creating digital content that is born-accessible, conducting evaluations of reading software and other library apps, and creating guidelines for publishers, librarians, and other key stakeholders (AccessiblePublishing.ca). All libraries in the core funding jurisdictions can participate in the NNELS collection and patrons at those libraries with a “print-disabled” designation on their library card are able to log in using their local library card and download accessible works to read or listen to.

Finally, because it exists, the Co-op is positioned to run many other smaller shared services (email hosting, mailing lists, EZproxy hosting) and actively works with members to surface new needs and ways in which it can facilitate shared services, cooperation, and savings.

The Co-op now has 200+ members across Canada. Our services help users across the entire country and serve at minimum 600,000+ end users (many more if licensed content products are considered).

Sustainability Model

Organizational Structure and Governance

As noted previously, it was important for the group that operated the shared ILS service to be formed as a free-standing legal entity. While there are a number of legal structures that could have facilitated this, the cooperative model was selected because it was a well-established model with its own legal status (in BC it is governed by the BC Cooperatives Act), but mainly because built into that legal model is the requirement for a democratic process of ownership and governance by members themselves. All cooperatives, be they in BC or elsewhere, strive to adhere to the 7 Values and Principles of Cooperatives, drafted by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in England in 1844. The first two of the principles, “Voluntary and Open Membership” and “Democratic Member Control” are core to BCLC and its membership.

In its founding documents, the Co-op allows for membership by any library or library-related entity. Membership can be had for a one-time (refundable upon departure) fee of $50. Membership grants members shared ownership of the Co-op, and as such, the right to be a voting member. Voting members participate and vote at the Annual General Meeting, serve on the Co-op’s governing board, and vote on matters of existential importance to the future of the Cooperative. To consume the services the Co-op provides, a library must first become a member.

All services the Co-op offers are “opt in,” meaning it is entirely possible to be a member but not participate in specific individual services. To further extend democratic governance to the individual service level, the Co-op’s by-laws also provide the ability to create “Business Function Groups.” These groups govern individual services. They meet regularly (annually, quarterly, or monthly, depending on the frequency of changes/decisions in the service) and allow for discussion and democratic decision-making on specific service-level choices.

Not all libraries are the same (the Co-op serves libraries from single branches and smaller service populations in the low thousands, up to those with multiple branches and service populations in the hundreds of thousands). And in their use of Co-op services, libraries may have different priorities based on their size or focus. Because of this, these Business Function Groups also have the ability to do weighted voting, where some libraries can be given more votes based on their size.

The Co-op currently has around 22 full-time staff, as well as a complement of 20 part-time or limited-term staff that are grant-funded and primarily dedicated to the NNELS project. The Co-op’s Executive Director reports to the governing board and oversees a small admin team and managers from the four core service areas (Sitka, Licensing, LibPress/Systems, and NNELS). The remaining majority of staff fill a combination of support and technologist roles across these four core service areas.

Revenue Model

The Co-op is a not-for-profit entity. As a member-owned and governed entity, it aims to keep costs as low as possible for its members. Costs for major services were established early in the service’s history and set by member vote. While modest increases can be implemented without the need for a member vote, anything above 2 percent typically needs to be taken to the membership for approval. All budgets are approved by the board, which is made up of member representatives. The Co-op adds a small administrative fee to pass through costs like “license brokering,” which help fund its overall operations, but as a rule all pricing for services is cost-recovery only.

As noted earlier, the Co-op revenue comes from funding from the BC’s Public Libraries Branch (currently within the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs) and member fees for service. An early mandate for the Co-op was to scale strategically to reduce the percentage dependence on the core funding. As the funding is meant to support services offered to BC public libraries specifically, part of that strategic growth to date has been leveraging the Co-op’s existing services for members outside of that core audience. Similarly, leveraging existing infrastructure and support staff to provide services not covered by the core funding has added revenues to sustain the overall operation. Both have been especially important as the core funding for the Co-op (and indeed its membership) did not fundamentally change between 2013 and 2023, until a one-time infusion in 2024. In 2011, provincial funding made up 46 percent of the Co-op’s annual revenue. In recent years this is now under 15 percent of operating revenue.

In the fiscal year 2023-24, the Co-op reviewed its member fees and fee structures and revised upwards for the first time since its inception (other than the standard 1-2 percent CPI increases over the years). It did so both to harmonize the fee structure across services (some services had used a “service population size” while others had been a flat fee), and to address severe inflationary pressures the Co-op was facing (along with everyone else). But it also did so with a strong view towards long-term sustainability.

In 2023 the Co-op’s Board approved the creation of a Contingency Fund as part of the budgeting process. This was part of a larger move to long-range planning for financial stability and sustainability. It also allows the Co-op to retain (up to a specified limit) any operating surpluses in a contingency fund that can be drawn on in the future in the event of funding shortfalls or other unanticipated demands on the budget. This is a major step in financial sustainability at the Co-op. However, work remains to be done, including working with membership to determine a reasonable annual amount for “research and development” not directly tied to immediate operations. Another part of that work is identifying long-term growth demands and determining how best to strategically meet them, whether through growth via expanded markets, new product offerings, or other means. The Co-op’s board and senior management is undertaking this work over the next few years.

Sharing Agreements

“Open” is at the very heart of the Co-op. The initial core product, the Sitka ILS service, is built on the Evergreen open-source software, but it goes far deeper than that. With a few small exceptions, almost every single service and operational element of the Co-op is run on open-source software. This is core to our business, as it allows us to avoid arbitrary and pernicious license cost increases and to enjoy the freedoms open source offers. It means the Co-op invests in people and know-how first. It has allowed the Co-op to offer its services to members at competitive rates while retaining those public monies within the local BC economy. The ability to work in an organization that champions open source has been shown to be a motivator in attracting and retaining staff, as has the mission to serve libraries.

The Co-op contributes code back to several of these projects, Evergreen being a prime example. Contributions are made using the same license that the project runs under, the GPL (GNU Public License) v2. Code created by the Co-op uses the GPL v2 license, and the Creative Commons Attribution license for non-code content.

As a major beneficiary of open-source software, the Co-op also believes in being a good open-source actor. In addition to our contributions of open-source code, documentation, testing, and participation on governance boards and advisory committees, the Co-op recognizes that it benefits from many open-source projects that it either can’t or hasn’t contributed back code, documentation, or other participation. For this reason, in 2014 the Co-op’s board approved the “Open-Source Contribution Fund” policy, a vehicle that allows the Co-op to donate funds (at the discretion of the Executive Director and only if there are funds available at fiscal year-end) to open-source projects to which the Co-op otherwise hasn’t contributed. In the 10 years since its origin, the Open-Source Contribution fund has donated approximately $8000 to 25 open-source projects on behalf of its membership.

Finally, as a cooperative, the Co-op strives to live up to the 7 Values and Principles of Cooperatives, the last two of which, “Cooperation amongst Cooperatives” and “Care for Community,” guide the Co-op’s daily operations, causing it to prioritize looking for solutions from other cooperatives and always considering how its choices impact not just the membership but the wider community too. Openness, which enables serendipity, often means the Co-op helps the wider community simply by operating and sharing in ways that create future benefits we can never anticipate.

Community Engagement

All of the Co-op’s “customer/users” are members, and as such the owners of the Co-op. Members are engaged regularly through either Business Function Group calls or Community calls as well as member surveys to solicit feedback and get guidance on future plans for the services. With the key funder, the now Public Libraries Branch, there are annual discussions between the Executive Director of the Co-op and the Director of the Public Libraries Branch to lay out the following year’s plans, as well as quarterly reporting back to both members and the Branch on operational milestones. In addition, the Director of the Public Libraries Branch sits on the Co-op’s board in an ex-officio (non-voting) capacity. Finally, the Co-op puts major emphasis on end-user training as a key way in which it supports members and provides additional value to its services.

Legal Considerations

While the Co-op itself is not considered a public entity and thus does not itself fall under FOIPPA legislation, the vast majority of its membership in BC are public entities subject to FOIPPA. As such, the Co-op ensures its practices conform with FOIPPA requirements and works closely with its members to ensure they have everything they need to complete Privacy Impact Assessments and be FOIPPA-compliant.

The Co-op also maintains a Privacy and Security Management Plan governed by its democratic member-elected board and compliant with industry standards, which outlines its Security and Privacy practices. This policy is reviewed every five years and is always available to members.

Because of the Co-op’s leading role on the NNELS project, it has amassed a lot of knowledge and expertise on accessibility. In addition to running the Accessible Libraries project, the Co-op received one-time Covid Relief funds from the Public Libraries Branch to conduct audits of its core services (performed by accessibility testers with lived experience from the NNELS team) and then performed remediation work based on this report to ensure that all of its core services meet (indeed far exceed) both provincial and international accessibility standards. This is another example of a small investment resulting in a large amount of shared benefit across all participating members, even those (like both Manitoba and post-secondary libraries) outside of that core funder’s remit.

Reflections and Learning

Challenges

Creating the Co-op was a heroic effort on many people’s part; in its early days it very much resembled a startup, with massive amounts of “sweat equity” contributed by its founders and early staff. It is entirely possible that starting any such endeavor always requires this kind of heroic effort. However, such a level of effort and dedication is rarely if ever sustainable long term, and it took at least six or seven years of operation for the Co-op to transition away from this situation of “heroism as general operating principle” to a more sustainable pace and model. Ultimately that journey has left the Co-op and its members in good stead – the Co-op is a values-driven organization whose staff actively choose to work there, believe in its core mission and its membership’s mission, and give a lot of themselves. But it is easy to forget the efforts it took to get here.

Another big challenge has been finding the right amount and right kinds of growth to sustain the organization and its membership. Some drivers of costs are far beyond the Co-op’s (or any organization’s) direct control: e.g., inflation, exchange rates, and the ongoing need to technologically innovate and keep up to date. Some of these costs may need to be borne by the funder and membership, and some can be absorbed through smart growth, i.e., growth that scales well. Identifying these, and communicating the demands and the strategy to all stakeholders – funders, members, management, staff – is an ongoing challenge, made even more difficult in the public sector that typically does not have the ability to instantly raise prices/increase revenues to cover rising cost pressures.

Successes

The Co-op is now officially 15 years old, a teenager! It enters its 15th year with a solid balance sheet, a revamped fee model that will allow it to continue operating effectively, and a contingency fund that will help it to more successfully weather future funding instability. It’s evolving healthy conversations about how it can grow intelligently while still maintaining quality high-value services for members.

The Co-op’s 2020 Strategic Plan identified “Care for Staff” as a core strategic aim, and in this regard the Co-op is now more sustainable than ever. It offers long-term employment, generous leave allowances and benefits, and competitive salaries to its staff. Turnover is low and employee work satisfaction is high, all good indicators of a sustainable, healthy approach.

Each of the four core services continues to grow organically, by word of mouth (the Co-op has no sales or marketing department). Those services are operated with a surveyed high degree of satisfaction by members and an operational uptime of 99.9 percent, again all indicators of success.

Recommendations

Creating a new entity requires a lot of attention and effort in the present, but also awareness of the future. If either of these focuses are out of balance, that entity may either never get off the ground, or falter in the longer term. Having a clear idea of the immediate need one is trying to serve is important, as is having a realistic picture of the pace of growth and the pressures that may necessitate it. Trying to consider both of these perspectives in a balanced way can help. Also, before creating something from scratch (which can be a huge lift), it’s a good idea to see if there are existing entities under which the collaboration could work.

But also… just start. A compelling problem and a group of people committed to trying to solve it can go a long way. What started as a Ministry-led project to host a shared ILS has become a 200+ member strong cooperative that other provinces eye in admiration, and that has consistently found new ways to help libraries help their communities.