Collection Guidelines: Economics: Local & Regional Collections

As members of the Western Regional Storage Trust (WEST) and the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA), the UW Libraries collaborates with other research libraries to ensure long-term access to microform and print serials whether or not a digital surrogate exists. Shared responsibility for maintaining retrospective print holdings enables the Libraries to better manage its own collections space.

Image: Detail from 1891 map of Seattle

The University of Washington Libraries is a member of the Orbis Cascade Alliance, a consortium of academic institutions in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Materials can be borrowed across the consortium. Collaboration among members of this regional consortium expands the print resources available to UW scholars through Summit, the Alliance joint catalog. The Orbis Cascade e-book program allows UW patrons to view electronic books that are accessible to and jointly owned by all member libraries.

Local public libraries including the Seattle Public Library and the King County Library System have strong collections of popular works.

The Libraries actively participates in regional and national cooperative collection development efforts which enhance the range of resources available to UW students, faculty, and staff while conserving precious funds for local acquisitions.   These include:

Center for Research Libraries (CRL).  This organization acquires research material in print, microform, and electronic formats on behalf of its members, including foreign dissertations, newspaper archives, and other important but infrequently used resources.  In addition, the UW Libraries participates in several initiatives of CRL's Global Resources Program  that focus on international scholarly resources, such as news, government publications, and  technical reports.  Two other CRL programs offer UW scholars access to resources that are not owned by the UW Libraries or by CRL.  Requests should meet a specific research or teaching need and total no more than $2,000 annually.

• Demand Purchase Program.  For purchase of foreign dissertations, newspaper issues, and published archives.  Requests are forwarded from the Libraries' Interlibrary Loan office.

• Scholar's Access Program.  For limited-term access to a database, newspaper, or other electronic resource.  Requests should be made through your subject librarian.