Collaborative Relationships

Daily we work with other library, technology, networking, and educational organizations to improve the library management and information services used by Florida's higher education community. Such cooperative efforts benefit our users by providing opportunities to develop reliable, high quality, cost-effective programs and services for the students, faculty, and staff at Florida's 28 colleges.

And while our collaborative efforts are primarily focused with library information services organizations for the academic sector, a growing number of national and international library organizations turn to us for our talent, expertise, and vision in helping guide development of library products and services for all types of libraries and information seekers.

Here are but a few of our collaborative partners.

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Florida's 28 Colleges

At the heart of each of Florida's 28 colleges is its library with the LINCC products and services provided by CCLA. While we collaborate most often with college library administrators and staff to develop and refine LINCC services, we also work closely with college administrators, business officers, and IT departments to ensure that the LINCC system remains an integral part of each student's overall educational experience.

We also collaborate directly with college students and faculty in the design and refinement of LINCC products and services. We regularly visit colleges to conduct student focus groups and hands-on testing of LINCC products—such as LINCCWeb—to ensure that our products are designed to meet their needs.

Division of Florida Colleges

CCLA is a cooperative effort between the Florida Department of Education's Division of Florida Colleges and the College Council of Presidents.

To enhance its awareness of library and information needs, the Division of Florida Colleges maintains an appointed liaison to our Advisory Board, while our CEO, Don Muccino, serves on the Division Chancellor's Executive Leadership Team where he actively presents library technology issues at the highest level of college oversight.

We also host a SharePoint-based web site, which provides college business officers access to fiscal data and other official documents. This is a collaborative project of the Division of Florida Colleges, the College Council of Presidents, and CCLA.

Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA)

Since CCLA was created in 1989, we have worked closely with the Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA), library system provider for Florida's 11 public universities. FCLA's Mango system and our LINCC system both utilize the underlying library management software, Aleph, provided by the same commercial vendor, Ex Libris. Such commonality of software provides for unique information-sharing and learning opportunities for our two organizations.

For more than a decade, the respective advisory boards of FCLA and CCLA have met annually to discuss library issues and opportunities common to both systems. Senior leaders from FCLA and CCLA serve as permanent members of each other's advisory board, while a Collaborative Ventures Steering Committee, comprised of the officers from both advisory groups, works together throughout the year to identify and address issues of mutual interest.

Florida Electronic Library

The Florida Electronic Library (FEL) plays an integral role in the success of LINCCWeb's statewide eResources collection, providing funding for a number of Gale and OCLC eResources within the shared electronic resources collection.

Our CEO, Don Muccino, serves as a member of the Florida Library Network Council, which advises the FEL and acts as a steering committee for the planning and implementation of statewide library resource sharing programs.

Ask a Librarian and the Tampa Bay Library Consortium

'Ask a Librarian' is a virtual reference service that anyone in Florida can log on to for expert assistance in locating information on the web. A service of the Florida Electronic Library, Ask a Librarian is administered by the Tampa Bay Library Consortium (TBLC).

CCLA and TBLC co-developed Ask a Librarian, launching it statewide in 2003. We continue to help shape the service as a member of the Ask a Librarian Advisory Committee.

Ex Libris

CCLA continues to enjoy a close working relationship with library software vendor Ex Libris, provider of LINCC's foundation software technologies: Primo, Aleph, MetaLib, and SFX.

Ex Libris has selected CCLA as a Charter Customer in the collaborative development and refinement of several of their most high profile software applications, most recently their library information platform, Primo. In 2009, CCLA launched its next-generation LINCCWeb user interface based on the Primo software.

In March 2010, Ex Libris again selected CCLA as a software development partner, this time as an Early Adopter for its emerging scholarly aggregator tool, Primo Central, which was implemented as a significant enhancement to LINCCWeb in May 2011.

CCLA continues to play a significant role in guiding the development of existing and emerging Ex Libris products. Four of our staff served on focus groups that provided input into the design of Ex Libris' next-generation Uniform Resource Management (URM) system software that will eventually replace Aleph. In addition, other CCLA staff serve on existing national-level groups providing guidance on Ex Libris product development.