CoUL Documents

The Council of University Librarians (CoUL) advances the shared priorities and strategic actions of the UC Libraries in service of the University’s core missions and the work and goals of UC faculty, students, clinicians, researchers, administrators and staff. As a self-formed, representative governance body, the council is guided by the CoUL Charter and operations are further informed by a series of CoUL shared agreements (as described on the CoUL Charter webpage).

CoUL maintains the UC Libraries vision, mission, long-range goals and annual priorities in consultation and partnership with the Direction and Oversight Committee (DOC); applicable planning documents are available on the UC Libraries Vision and Priorities webpage.

Select documents, statements, updates and presentations

2025

• In March, following a two-year, multi-phase project to analyze the total operating budget for the Regional Library Facilities, CoUL and the UC Office of the President endorsed formally shifting the facilities from regional to systemwide service centers, including re-naming both SLFB and the facilities (to the Systemwide Library Facilities Board and Systemwide Library Facilities), and appointed UC Berkeley Library to serve as the administrative host for the SLF director and services.

2024

• In November, CoUL renewed the UC Libraries contract with the Ex Libris Group for the Alma/Primo VE software suite, which supports the UC Libraries SILS and UC Library Search services and infrastructure. This contract renewal includes a two-year collaborative workstream improvement project and commitment from Ex Libris to improve its services and software.
• In August and September, CoUL and the Direction and Oversight Committee (DOC) finalized the University of California Library Systemwide Annual Plans and Priorities, FY 2024/2025 [PDF].
• In May, CoUL responded to a National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) call for comment regarding the planned elimination of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Academic Libraries (AL) Survey. On behalf of the UC Libraries, CoUL joined almost 800 commenters from higher education institutions and consortia to voice its concerns and highlight some of the immediate and downstream negative strategic impacts should the AL survey be discontinued. CoUL noted: “These statistics, and their regular collection, uniquely contribute to the functioning of academic libraries and the higher education enterprise broadly.”
• In May, UC Academic Senate Chair James Steintrager and UC Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication (UCOLASC) Chair Maria DePrano released statements of support for the University Libraries’ Negotiations with Publishers Regarding Fair Use, Text and Data Mining, and Artificial Intelligence Usage Rights. President Michael V. Drake and Provost Katherine S. Newman then joined the faculty with a statement, released in June, “to uphold the University’s commitment to preserve the reader and researcher rights of scholars, including their ability to analyze the scholarly corpus utilizing existing and emerging research modalities.”
• Under the leadership of the libraries and faculty, UC co-hosted The Right to Deposit webinar with the Authors Alliance in April. The virtual webinar was attended by over 350 attendees and resulted in a public statement in support of using the Federal purpose license to implement the 2022 OSTP public access memo.

2023

• In August and September, CoUL and the Direction and Oversight Committee (DOC) finalized the University of California Library Systemwide Annual Plans and Priorities, FY 2023/2024 [PDF].
• In July 2023, and in furtherance of the efforts of the UC Libraries and Faculty negotiation team, the UC Academic Senate Chair issued a public statement on the Academic Council’s unanimous support for the University Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication (UCOLASC) statement on the retention of author rights license to publish agreements. In August, UC President Michael V. Drake and Provost Katherine S. Newman joined the Senate with their support: “Open and equitable access to information critically enables the University of California’s teaching, research, and public service missions, and the University remains deeply committed to the transformation of the scholarly publishing landscape to ensure the widest possible access to the scholarly record. As authors and administrators, we are disappointed to learn that publishers are deliberately undermining the stated will of UC faculty, as expressed in open access policy, declared rights and principles, and through author selection of Creative Commons (CC) licenses.”
• In January, the UC Libraries launched a CoUL-charged and Mellon Foundation funded landmark research project – Project LEND (Library Expansion of Networked Delivery) – to investigate the potential for expanded lawful use of digitized books held by academic and research libraries. This two-year investigation brought together library and faculty experts from across UC and included consultants from the HathiTrust Digital Library and higher education institutions across the United States.

2022

• In August and September, CoUL finalized the University of California Library Systemwide Annual Plans and Priorities, FY 2022/2023 [PDF] with feedback and guidance from the Direction and Oversight Committee (DOC).
• In August 2022, CoUL and the UC Libraries released a statement in support of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memo and guidance to accelerate public access to federally funded research.
• As announced in May, CoUL endorsed the UC Libraries joining the California State University (CSU) and California Community College (CCC) libraries in striking the first-ever California-wide transformative open access agreement.

2021

• CoUL endorsed the 2021 Statement on Inclusion and Equity in Special Collections, Archives, and Distinctive Collections in the University of California Libraries from the UC Heads of Special Collections.
• Under the leadership of the UC Libraries and faculty representatives, the University of California co-hosted the 15th Berlin Open Access Conference (B15) in partnership with the Max Planck Society’s Open Access 2020 Initiative. Stakeholders and decision-makers in research and scholarly communication from 46 countries came together at the virtual B15 conference to reflect on their progress in transforming the current subscription-based system of scholarly journal publishing to a system based on open dissemination of research results for the benefit of science and society.
• In August and September, CoUL finalized the University of California Library Systemwide Annual Plans and Priorities, FY 2021/2022 [PDF] with feedback and guidance from the Direction and Oversight Committee (DOC).
• In July, following a four-year multi-phase project, the UC Libraries successfully migrated from ten independent integrated library systems (ILSs) to a single, shared enterprise solution, referred to as the Systemwide ILS (SILS), and shared discovery portal, UC Library Search. UC President Michael V. Drake celebrated the accomplishment by noting: “UC Library Search is exemplary of the collaborative work occurring within our university ecosystem.”
• UC Davis University Librarian and Vice Provost MacKenzie Smith spoke on behalf of CoUL and the UC Libraries in July about the University’s practical approach to open access transformation at scale.
• In May, UC Provost Michael Brown and CoUL representatives provided an update to the UC Board of Regents’ Academic and Student Affairs Committee on open access and publisher contracts.
• Two years after the University cut ties with Elsevier in a push for open access to publicly funded research, the UC Libraries, in partnership with the Academic Senate and Administrators, secured a landmark open access transformative publisher agreement with Elsevier in March 2021. UC President Michael V. Drake, M.D celebrated the agreement: “This groundbreaking agreement will allow for more open, equitable access to information. As more universities and research institutions support open access, scientific knowledge will advance at an unparalleled pace.”

2020

• In August, September and October, CoUL finalized the University of California Library Systemwide Annual Plans and Priorities, FY 2020/2021 [PDF] with feedback and guidance from the Direction and Oversight Committee (DOC).
• CoUL representatives participated in drafting the Systemwide Library and Scholarly Information Advisory Committee (SLASIAC) Study Group report, titled The UC Libraries: Collaborating for Mission, Leadership and Efficiency, in June 2020. SLASIAC Chair and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Gregg Camfield led this study and the drafting of the report at the request of the Council of Chancellors.
• UC libraries, alongside administrators, offices of research, the Academic Senate and individual faculty, provided comments in response to 2020 White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) Request For Information (RFI) on public access to federally funded research. UC responses to this 2020 RFI were compiled and published in June 2020 through the UC Office of Scholarly Communication.
• While physical library buildings closed in March and April 2020 as part of the UC campus closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UC Libraries provided uninterrupted and continuing virtual and digital services in support of UC teaching, research, learning and health care.

2019

• In partnership with the UC Academic Senate, the UC Libraries co-hosted the Open Access Tipping Point Workshop in Washington, DC in August 2019. The invitational workshop gathered US and Canadian institutions motivated to refactor their current, big-deal commercial publisher agreements to support a sustainable open access transformation; also in attendance were experts from Germany, Hungary, Norway and Sweden. The Open Access Tipping Point Public Affirmation was co-written and signed by all library and faculty workshop attendees. A virtual Open Access Tipping Point Public Forum followed the workshop.
• In August and September, CoUL finalized the University of California Library Systemwide Annual Plans and Priorities, FY 2019/2020 [PDF] with feedback and guidance from the Direction and Oversight Committee (DOC).
• In July, CoUL representatives presented to the UC Board of Regents’ Academic and Student Affairs Committee on open access and academic journal contracts.
• The UC Publisher Strategy and Negotiation Task Force, comprised of library and faculty members, published Negotiating with scholarly journal publishers: A toolkit from the University of California in May 2019. The toolkit provides a framework for creating transformative change in the scholarly publishing industry based on initial insights from UC’s 2018-19 negotiations with Elsevier.
• In March, CoUL and the UC Libraries took a firm stand for open access to publicly funded research and fiscal responsibility by deciding not to renew UC’s journal subscriptions with Elsevier. Both UC faculty and administrators supported the libraries in walking away from the negotiation table with Elsevier.

2018

• Following a briefing to the Council of Vice Chancellors (CoVC) in October, the CoVC wrote a letter to the chairs of the Council of University Librarians and the University Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication recognizing “the urgent need to reduce licensed content costs to levels that the University can sustain, and the desire to make research outputs openly accessible.”
• Following verbal endorsement in September, CoUL wrote a letter of endorsement in October for the formation of a working group to develop clear university policies providing non-Academic Senate academic appointees with appropriate protections, responsibilities, and obligations for scholarship, research, and/or teaching conducted in the context of their appointments.
• In August and September, CoUL finalized the University of California Library Systemwide Annual Plans and Priorities, FY 2018/2019 [PDF] with feedback and guidance from the Direction and Oversight Committee (DOC).
• In June, the Systemwide Library and Scholarly Information Advisory Committee (SLASIAC) issued Negotiating Journal Agreements at UC: A Call to Action [PDF], which was published in consultation with CoUL and the Academic Senate University Committee on Library and Scholarly Communication (UCOLASC).
• On February 27, 2018, CoUL endorsed the Pathways to OA analysis. The Pathways to OA is intended to assist campus libraries and the California Digital Library with individual, and where appropriate, collective decision-making about which OA strategies, possible next steps, or experiments to pursue in order to achieve large-scale transition to OA.

2017

• On November 21, 2017, CoUL announced that a newly charged working group will investigate implementing a systemwide ILS for the UC Libraries. The Systemwide ILS Working Group is supported by a set of shared principles and assumptions [PDF].
• On August 21, 2017, CoUL finalized the University of California Library Systemwide Annual Plans and Priorities, FY 2017/2018 [PDF].

2016

• On July 22, 2016, CoUL finalized the University of California Libraries Systemwide Annual Plan and Priorities, FY 2016-2017 [PDF].

2015

• On Sept. 29, 2015, CoUL posted the revised University of California Libraries, Systemwide Annual Plan and Priorities, FY 2015-2016 (August 10, 2015) [PDF]. The document will be updated as assignments are finalized for the year.

2014

• On September 23, 2014, CoUL finalized the University of California Libraries Systemwide Plan and Priorities, 2014-2018.
• On July 11, 2014, CoUL acknowledged and thanked the UC Libraries Advisory Structure members for their hard work and accomplishments of the previous year. A summary of the work in progress and completed is posted on the Coordinating Committee’s page (see: UCLAS Achievements: July 1, 2013 – June 30, 2014).

2013

• On March 26, 2013 CoUL issued a statement of support for McMaster University Librarian Dale Askey, who is facing a personal lawsuit filed by a publisher.
• On February 4, 2013, CoUL sent comments [PDF] in response to the US Copyright Office’s Notice of Inquiry on Orphan Works [PDF].

2012

• CoUL sent letters of support [PDF] for the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2012 (HR.4004) to California representatives, including two on the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform (April, 2012).
• CoUL responded to the introduction of HR.3699, The Research Works Act (RWA), with a letter of opposition to the bill’s co-sponsor, Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) (January 24, 2012) [PDF]
• CoUL responded to the OSTP [PDF] RFI on Public Access to Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Publications Resulting From Federally Funded Research (January 9, 2012)
• The CoUL responded to the OSTP [PDF] RFI on Public Access to Digital Data Resulting From Federally Funded Scientific Research (January 9, 2012)

2011

• UC Digital Collection Development Strategy (October 22, 2011) [PDF] (Acknowledged by the CoUL at their March 16, 2012 meeting)
• University of California Libraries Systemwide Plan and Priorities, FY 2012-2015, Internal Audience (September 19, 2011) [PDF]
• Discovery Systems and Services: Principles and Goals (Endorsed by the CoUL July 29, 2011) [PDF]

2009

• University of California Library Collection: Content for the 21st Century and Beyond (July 2009) [PDF]