Membership & People

The 2023 Missouri Library Association Annual Conference, "Celebrating a Culture of Care" took place October 4-6, 2023 and celebrated the ways libraries care for their communities.

DOAJ, a trusted directory dedicated to indexing high-quality Open Access journals, plays a pivotal role in the scholarly community. Libraries make extensive use of DOAJ as a source of trusted journals, integrating metadata into their discovery systems and open access services. Amigos partnership with DOAJ simplifies the process of library contributions for DOAJ and facilitates libraries providing financial support for DOAJ’s vital work.

The IMLS-funded Collaborative Collections Lifecycle Project (CCLP), seeks to overcome serious barriers to wider implementations of cooperative collections management, including the lack of available vendor-neutral interoperable systems, adequate governance and decision-making frameworks, and assessment tools.

The latest vendor to be added to the Amigos Discount Direct program, Skilltype, is a talent and skills management platform, which enables libraries of all types to identify, develop and create higher-performing teams.

Registrations are open for the second DOAJ at 20 webinar on the 28th September at 8 a.m. CDT. This webinar will be around the theme Global, and we will hear eight lighting talks from inspiring speakers and experts worldwide about the challenges, opportunities and successes that open access brings.

Meet with other Amigos members to discuss and explore emerging and critical issues in the library environment in this next Community Conversation on Libraries and the Letter of the Law. Laws and rules governing libraries are rapidly being re-evaluated and updated nationwide. Join us for the next Amigos Community Conversations event and delve into some of the key legal developments affecting libraries, such as censorship and access to library services. Leaders will take center stage to share their insights, expertise, and experiences on how these new laws are affecting the way libraries operate.

Amigos recently welcomed two new employees. Alex Womack has been hired for the position of Client Coordinator, Association Management Services (AMS). Jacob San Antonio is working as Amigos Customer Support Specialist, Member Discount Services and Trans-Amigos Express.

The 22nd Annual Northwest Interlibrary Loan and Resource Sharing Conference will be held virtually, September 20-22, 2023. The 2023 Keynote Speaker is Shannon Pritting, Director of Library Services, Open, and Digital Learning Assets at Empire State University; the keynote topic is Boundaries, Nostalgia, and Collaboration: Resource Sharing as a Framework.

The "DOAJ at 20" webinar, the first of three events celebrating 20 years of DOAJ took place June 25. The recording is available on their YouTube and inside the DOAJ at 20 Swag Bag, featuring subtitles in English with subtitles in French and Spanish soon to come.

The recent agreement between National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and Amigos Library Services (Amigos) now extends NISO Library Standards Alliance (LSA) membership to all Amigos members. The agreement provides over 500 Amigos member libraries with full LSA membership benefits, including free access to NISO's educational webinar program.