Volume 24, Number 1 | April 2026 | | | |
WriteAway and AskAway Receive Ministry Funding to Support Service Sustainability
BC ELN received $155,500 in one-time funding from the Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills to support AskAway and WriteAway as they navigate operational and structural transitions to secure long-term sustainability.
“The Ministry’s investment in AskAway and WriteAway reflects a broader recognition of how collaborative services strengthen resiliency for partner libraries in B.C.,” says Sunni Nishimura, BC ELN Executive Director.
Read the official announcement.
| | Shared Library Services Platform (LSP) Feasibility Update | | |
Following the BC ELN Steering Committee’s July 2025 decision to explore the feasibility of a coordinated approach to shared LSPs, the Leadership and Advisory Group has been steadily advancing the work. Most recently, the BC ELN community had an opportunity to ask questions and hear updates during the first Shared LSP Water Cooler Session.
To stay informed about the feasibility study—including current progress and upcoming engagement opportunities—read our latest news post.
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Supporting Research Data Management Needs Across the Province
A New Opportunity to License Borealis: BC ELN has signed a new agreement bringing the Borealis data repository service to non-COPPUL BC ELN partner libraries! Borealis, a national platform supporting research data deposit, preservation, and discovery, has historically only been available in British Columbia to COPPUL member libraries. BC ELN will now handle invoicing for non-COPPUL partner libraries who wish to join the service, expanding access and offering a clear and sustainable pathway into a trusted national research data infrastructure. Non-COPPUL BC ELN partner libraries can reach out to Brandon Weigel (brandonw@bceln.ca) if they are interested in joining Borealis.
| | | | Reflections from BC ELN’s 2025-2026 Student Librarians | | Stay informed and up-to-date with the latest updates on BC ELN core services. | |
Arca Digital Repository
Islandora Migration: All member sites have completed data migration, and all but two sites have launched on the new platform! The final steps for launching the remaining two sites are nearly complete. Arca has also implemented numerous new features and safeguards, including strategies for bot protection and support for metadata mapping to enhance discoverability through harvesters such as Library and Archives Canada and EBSCO Discovery Service.
Arca Aggregator Site: The new Arca aggregator connects to every Arca repository, enabling users to search all Arca content from a single location. The site has been fully built and tested; the final task is configuring its user‑friendly interface. This implementation builds on open‑source work originally commissioned by the Florida Statewide Digital Library, underscoring the value of Arca’s participation in and contributions to the open‑source community. Keep an eye out for the Arca aggregator site's official launch!
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Arca Partnerships with the BC History Digitization Program (BCHDP)
Search Tips and New BCHDP Collections Now Available: Published Advanced Search and Search Tips pages on the BCHDP Arca site to help visitors more easily access content. Plus, five new collections were recently welcomed into the BCHDP Arca child site, which were digitized with funding from the BC History Digitization Program (BCHDP):
BCHDP Support Service: The BC ELN-BCHDP Support Service team provided substantive support to 17 organizations in preparation for the 2026-27 cycle of the grant. Of the nine organizations who then went on to submit a final application to the 2026-27 BCHDP cycle, seven were successful in achieving funding! Six of those applicants plan to host their digitized materials in Arca.
The Early Notice Survey for the 2027-28 cycle will be released in early July, which invites eligible organizations to indicate their intent to apply. If your library is considering applying in the upcoming cycle, please reach out to the support team at digisupport@bceln.ca!
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AskAway Chat Research Help
Sustainability Recommendations Approved: AskAway has approved a new sustainable commitment model that will come into effect in 2027/28. Overall, the new model takes a moderate approach to changes to the service support fees, staffing commitments, and service hours, aiming to balance the change that is required to create a sustainable service with the need to preserve the value of AskAway for individual libraries and the students who rely on it.
Emerging Technologies Working Group Recommendations Approved: During their February 6, 2026 meeting, the AskAway Advisory Committee approved recommendations to address emerging technologies impacting the AskAway service. On April 1, 2026, the AskAway Admin Centre and the Working Group held a Lunch and Learn session to share recommendations, next steps, and answer questions. The approximately 40 attendees engaged positively with the recommendations, asking questions and offering to help move the work forward.
New AI Literacy AskAway Tag: Service providers can now apply the new AI Literacy tag to their chat sessions with AskAway patrons in LibraryH3lp. Developed by the AskAway Emerging Technologies Working Group, the tag's purpose is to better understand and assess the types of questions about AI tools that patrons are asking on the service. With a tag in place, we can easily identify chats that include AI literacy content.
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Illume Resource Sharing
Water Cooler Session: A recent Illume Water Cooler Session for non-SHAREit Libraries invited resource sharing administrators and/or staff to connect, discuss workflow with other BC ELN libraries, and hear updates from the Illume Administrative Support Centre. Participating institutions shared their resource sharing priorities and concerns, informing BC ELN's future work to pursue inter-operability between resource sharing products.
SHAREit Network Priority Updates: BC ELN recently worked closely with SFU IT on solutions to mitigate the impact of Simon Fraser University network outages. SFU has confirmed that provincial services like Illume and Arca will be prioritized along with other critical infrastructure!
Environmental Scan and Needs Assessment Projects: BC ELN is partnering with Public Libraries Branch (Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs) to conduct an environmental scan and needs assessment. This work will identify provincial resource‑sharing opportunities and trends, and will gather insights into the evolving needs of B.C.’s post‑secondary and public libraries.
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Licensing
Library eResource Accessibility Portal (LEAP) Pilot: In partnership with the Ontario Colleges Library Service (OCLS), BC ELN began its initial 1-year pilot term (Apr. 1, 2026 - Mar. 31, 2027) to complete accessibility assessments of e-resources using the LEAP tool.
New Resource Selection Process: As part of the updated process, partner libraries complete a ranking survey to select 1–2 resources—drawn from suggestions submitted over the previous year—that they would like to license consortially. The 2026 Ranking Survey closed on March 20, 2026. Analysis and follow‑up investigation of the results is now underway, and findings will be posted soon.
New Resources on Offer:
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Indigenous-Focused Resources: BC ELN now offers four new Indigenous resources through the 4 Seasons of Reconciliation agreement. These four new microlearnings provide streamlined, barrier-free setup and concise professional development opportunities on specific Indigenous-focused topics.
Learn more and subscribe here in ConsortiaManager!
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APA Style Manual: This online, full-text tool for learning and teaching APA citation style is now available to BC ELN members in collaboration with Consortia Canada. This was voted as the highest priority resource in the 2022 New Resource Selection process, though it was not available for consortial licensing at that time. Due to a prorated initial term, this agreement is coming up for renewal on July 1.
Learn more and subscribe here in ConsortiaManager!
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Community and Member Engagement: BC ELN’s Licensing Manager (Reba Ouimet), joined by our consortial librarian (Sasha Han), spoke to UBC’s LIBR 580 Collection Management class about consortial licensing and the benefits of collaboration. BC ELN also provided licensing orientations to staff at BC ELN’s newest partner libraries, Adler University and LaSalle College.
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WriteAway Online Writing Support
Service Model Working Group Recommendations Approved: The Service Model Working Group (SMWG) convened in July 2025 to enhance the sustainability of WriteAway by investigating how the service should adapt to changing usage, students’ needs, technology, and student assignment types. During their November 25, 2025 meeting, the WriteAway Advisory Committee approved the SMWG's sustainability recommendations for further exploration, advancing the creation of an implementation plan for changes to the service model.
Technical Infrastructure Working Group Convened: The Technical Infrastructure Working Group (TIWG) has begun exploring technical infrastructure options to determine the feasibility of the Service Model Working Group’s recommendations. The TIWG will deliver recommendations to the WriteAway Advisory Committee to ensure WriteAway offers a modern, integrated user experience aligned with evolving learner needs.
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