PALNI Group Participation

Scope of work:

• Create and approve strategic initiatives once per year, create and act on Board goals and action items, review goals for gaps, approves annual budget
• Provides direction to the EC and Board on strategic initiatives and feedback on goals and activities
• Reviews reports from EC, ED, StratComm, Coordinators/Consultants, and Working Groups and provides strategic guidance through ED
• Present any knowledge pertinent to PALNI strategic activities from external groups, campus, and media
• Ask questions to ensure understanding of the goals and outcomes of the projects
• Ensure PALNI employees and groups follow strategic plan and PALNI mission, vision, and values
• Review group efficiency and effectiveness in pursuit of goals
• Provide input on strategic priorities

See Bylaws for complete list of responsibilities

See our Governance page for current member listing.

Body to which the group reports:
Board of Directors

Scope of work:

• Provides oversight of ED, works with ED to manage current year budget fund lines
• Recommends Budget
• Provides authorization to ED to sign contracts
• Strategic Plan Work:
  • Coordinate Board goals and action items
  • Strategic goals are coordinated by the ED and EC with group responsibility.
  • The goals are guided by strategic initiatives.
• Serves as the Audit Committee
• Focuses board attention on collaboration opportunities with other organizations

Member appointment and terms:
The PALNI Board elects its own Vice-Chair and Secretary annually and the Treasurer bi-annually to join the current Chair, Past Chair, and PALNI Executive Director in forming the Executive Committee.

Expected reporting frequency:
Quarterly reports before each Board meeting and as needed to update the Board on their plans and actions.

Staff or Board liaisons:
PALNI Executive Director

Body to which the group reports:
Board of Directors

Scope of work:

• Consists of the Treasurer, the Past Chair of the EC, the Past Treasurer, the ED and other members as appointed by the Chair of the EC.
• Acts as an advisory body to the EC as needed.
• Reviews the Investment Management Policy every two years.
• Reviews the Cost Sharing Formula every five years or more frequently as needed.

Member appointment and terms:
Chaired by the current Treasurer. Also assigned to this committee is the Past Chair and Incoming Treasurer (if identified) and others as appointed by the EC Chair. EC positions rotate as EC members change. All other members participate as appointed/agreed upon.

Staff or Board liaisons:
PALNI Executive Director

Future Framing Committee membership:
EC Chair-Elect
EC Chair 
ED, PALNI
Assistant Director, PALNI
Communication Director, PALNI
4 board members serving staggered 2-year terms

Body to which the group reports:
Executive Committee and the entire PALNI Board

Charge/Scope:
The Future Framing committee assists the executive committee and board to identify challenges and opportunities faced by PALNI and the supported institutions five and ten years out and assist in proposed planning to get to a successful future. 

Specific goals and outcomes:
The committee will identify key opportunities and challenges each year and recommend to the EC/ED/Board strategic actions which may include:

• Identifying challenges and opportunities to be further addressed in board task forces or to the board
• Analyzes emerging trends and recommends inclusions in PALNI strategy
• Identifying changes in the definition of the scope of PALNI supported organizations or potential service partnerships what matters in potential partners or added supported institutions.
• Opportunities to address staffing, budget, and library service challenges
• Develops an adjustable, evolving PALNI vision of the core and emerging jobs that the supported libraries are called to do and recommends activities to support at the PALNI level while considering the variety in needs and ability to invest across the PALNI supported institutions. This includes core items that can be scaled and emerging services that individual libraries struggle to invest in.

Body to which the group reports:
Strategic Communications Director > Executive Director > Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Pursue the goal of efficient, effective communications internally and externally, including:

• Assess current communication including preferred modes, styles, timing, technologies
• Scan environment for best practices in communication, including modes of communication and targeting for different outcomes
• Development communication plan(s) addressing training protocol, and assessment of modes, tools, behavior

Member appointment and terms:
On hiatus until needed. Temporary membership created at time of need.

Body to which the group reports:
Associate Director > Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Statement of Work

The Fulfillment Advisory Group coordinates maintenance, best practices, troubleshooting, and development efforts associated with resource sharing for PALNI libraries, including PALShare. This group examines opportunities related to ILL and other possibilities for resource sharing between PALNI supported institutions as well as externally and develops associated best practices. Works with the Collection Management Policy Group.

Participation and terms:
Participation is open to any library staff who work in fulfillment in their library.

The term of appointment is one year. Existing participants may re-volunteer.

Body to which the group reports:
Associate Director > Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Statement of Work

The Instructional Technology Working Group provides resources and support to PALNI supported organizations working in instructional technology, information technology, and instructional design.

Participation and terms:
Participation is open to any library staff who work in fulfillment in their library.

The term of appointment is one year. Existing participants may re-volunteer.

Body to which the group reports:
Associate Director > Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Statement of Work

The Electronic Resource Management Advisory Group (ERM) coordinates maintenance, best practices, troubleshooting, and development efforts associated with electronic resource management on the WMS platform. The ERM Advisory Group also assesses interactions between PALNI ERM platforms and electronic resource access tools, supports e-resource collection development, and evaluates e-resource metadata sources used by PALNI ERM platforms.

Participation and terms:
The term of appointment is one year. Existing participants may re-volunteer.

Body to which the group reports:
Executive Director > Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Statement of Work

Coordinates end-user needs, usability, and learning outcomes assessments, and provides support and services for reference, instruction, and outreach. Advises the PALNI ED, EC, and Board in these areas. Gathers input from faculty and students as well as provides their own recommendations. Works with analytics, ROI, and assessment.

Participation and terms:
Participation is open to any library staff who serve in the role of reference, instruction, or outreach in their library. Existing participants may re-volunteer.

Body to which the group reports:
Scholarly Communications Director>Executive Director>Board of Directors

Scope of work:
Statement of Work

The Scholarly Communications Working Group (ScholComm) develops and supports scholarly communication initiatives at the PALNI-supported institutions. PALNI defines scholarly communication as the cycle through which scholarly information is created, evaluated, disseminated, acquired, and preserved. Initiatives include open access, scholarly publishing, institutional repositories, affordable learning, and digitization.

Specifically, ScholComm:

• Raises awareness and provides professional development opportunities related to ScholComm activities, via web and in-person.
• Identifies, develops, and maintains resources, tools, policies, and services applicable to ScholComm initiatives.
• Creates targeted task forces on pertinent ScholComm topics.
• Guides participation in Hyku Commons, the PALSave Affordable Learning Program, and the PALNI Open Press. 

Corresponding Task Forces:

• Open Pedagogy Task Force (Completed 2024, Reconvened 2025)
• Hyku Migration Task Force (Completed 2024)
• Course Mapping Task Force (Completed 2023)
• Faculty Engagement Toolkit Task Force (Completed 2022)
• OER Publishing Task Force (Completed 2021)
• Library Publishing Task Force (Completed 2020, now Publishing Services Admin Team. See press.palni.org)
• Resource Integration Task Force (Completed 2020)
• Open Textbook Adoption Task Force (Completed 2020)
• Islandora Implementation Task Force (Completed 2020)
• Collaborative Consortial Institutional Repository (CC-IR) Hyku Pilot Task Force (Completed 2019, now Hyku for Consortia Product Management Team. See hykuforconsortia.org)

Participation and terms:
Participation is open to any library staff with an interest in scholarly communications. The term is one year. Existing participants may re-volunteer.

Body to which the group reports:
Scholarly Communications Director > Executive Director > Board of Directors

Group Affiliation:
Scholarly Communications

Scope of work:
The Editorial Board for PALNI Open Press provides strategic, editorial, and policy-level guidance to ensure the service upholds high standards of quality, transparency, and alignment with library values, institutional missions, and best practices in scholarly publishing. The Board advises on the service’s publishing scope and policy, and reviews proposals. Participants serve as advocates for library publishing, contributing their expertise to strengthen its impact within scholarly communities.

Participation and terms:
The term of appointment is two years. Existing participants may re-volunteer for up to two terms.

Body to which the group reports:
Board of Directors

Group Affiliation:
Scholarly Communications

Scope of work:

Collaborative Collections Management Team - Statement of Work

Collaborative Collections Management Team Action Plan 2025-2026

The goals of the committee are to identify and support collaborative collection management activities. Activities include strategy development, policy development, pilot initiation, and administrative oversight.

Potential Areas of Focus:

• Demand Driven and Evidence-Based Acquisitions
• Support PALNI’s consortial membership in EAST
• Coordinated Acquisitions
• Investigate PALNI Licenses with vendors (work separately from ALI)
• Create and maintain an academic program inventory for PALNI to inform collaborative efforts
• Support the development of PALNI-level and institutional-level collection management policies

Member appointment and terms:
The term of appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer. Interested members may volunteer by contacting staff@palni.edu. 

Body to which the group reports:
Scholarly Communications Director > Executive Director > Board of Directors

Group Affiliation:
Scholarly Communications

Scope of work:
The Hyku Support Team provides support for repository activities at PALNI-supported institutions. The team will work collectively to address local barriers to repository work, including creating and maintaining documentation, troubleshooting functionality, and addressing enhancement requests. 

Participant appointment and terms:
The term of appointment is one year. Existing participants may re-volunteer.

Body to which the group reports:
Scholarly Communications Director>Executive Director>Board of Directors

Group Affiliation:
Scholarly Communications

Scope of work:
This team provides ongoing administration and support for the PALNI Affordable Learning program.

Member appointment and terms:
The term of appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer.

Body to which the group reports:
Scholarly Communications Director > Executive Director > Board of Directors

Group Affiliation:
Scholarly Communications

Scope of work:
The Publishing Services Admin Team provides support for library publishing activities at PALNI-supported institutions. The team primarily creates and maintains documentation for basic level journal publishing services using the Open Journal Systems (OJS) platform; and also develops skills and workflows for other highly desired services, content types, and platforms under the PALNI Press. Members will work collectively to address local barriers to library publishing, engage with the library publishing community, and monitor the landscape for new developments in this area.

Member appointment and terms:
The term of appointment is one year. Existing members may re-volunteer.