May 8, 2013 (ALEXANDRIA, VA)— Alexander Street Press has forged a landmark agreement with the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI) to provide perpetual access to academic online video collections for 124 of the group's participating governing member institutions.

Since 2005, CARLI has united libraries across Illinois with the common goal of building environments that foster scholarship and education. Beginning in May, governing member institutions will be granted perpetual streaming access to the six Alexander Street Press video databases of their choice from a broad range of disciplines. The agreement will also cover participating libraries’ access fees for the first 10 years.

This unique agreement allowed each participating library the freedom to select the resources that best fit the needs of its patrons. The most frequently chosen collections include American History in Video, Nursing Education in Video, World History in Video, Health and Society in Video, Education in Video, Criminal Justice and Public Safety in Video, and volumes I–III of Counseling and Therapy in Video.

Cindy Clennon, CARLI Director of Electronic Resources explained, “This purchase was facilitated by a significant investment in ASP video collections made by four CARLI member libraries: Northern Illinois University, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. That purchase created a basis for this new endeavor and all of the CARLI libraries have benefitted from their vision.”

“We’re thrilled to provide these resources to so many institutions across Illinois,” said Alexander Street Press President Stephen Rhind-Tutt. “This agreement enables us to share information with hundreds of thousands of students, faculty, and scholars, and strongly supports our mission of making silent voices heard. CARLI is a pioneer in the field, and we hope this will open doors for other groups seeking ways to enrich their members’ resources.”

“The CARLI Board of Directors is excited to make these innovative resources available to our governing members," said CARLI Executive Director Susan Singleton. “Budgets are tight right now, but this agreement provides unprecedented flexibility for our institutions and allows them to embrace streaming video to support teaching and scholarship in dramatic new ways. We're grateful to Alexander Street Press for their instrumental role in making this landmark agreement possible. "

Each collection from Alexander Street Press includes hundreds of hours of high-caliber video hand selected by content experts. For many participating libraries, these will become the first video databases on offer, allowing thousands of students and faculty to experiment with and learn the benefits of streaming video. 

According to Thomas Teper, Associate Dean and Associate University Librarian for Collections at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, “Our campus made a significant investment in Alexander Street’s streaming video products a couple of years ago. The flexibility of the offer made to CARLI provides broader coverage of streaming products to our campus and enables us to continue support to our consortial partners.”

Denise Cote, Reference Librarian at College of DuPage adds, “Alexander Street provides an excellent product that is easy for faculty to use in their online courses and in their classrooms. The collections subsidized by CARLI add useful content to our Academic Video Online subscription and we are thrilled to have access.”

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About Alexander Street Press
Alexander Street Press is an electronic publisher of award-winning online collections and video for scholarly research, teaching, and learning. Our products are available to libraries and educational institutions worldwide via annual subscription or one-time purchase. Learn more at http://www.alexanderstreet.com.

About CARLI
Since 2005, the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois has led the state’s academic libraries to create and sustain rich, supportive, and diverse knowledge environments that further teaching, learning, and research through the sharing of collections, expertise, and programs. Together, CARLI’s 145 member libraries serve the needs of 850,000 students and thousands of faculty and staff. Read more at www.carli.illinois.edu.

Contact for Media Inquiries/Reviewer Access:

Abby Horowitz, Marketing Writer
Alexander Street Press
3212 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
703-212-8520 x 313
ahorowitz [at] alexanderstreet [dot] com