DePauw Stories

DePauw University Libraries, a founding institution of the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI), are proudly celebrating the consortium’s 30th anniversary in 2022. Since its first library-to-library collaboration in the 1980s, PALNI has worked to advance the educational missions of its supported institutions by sharing resources and leveraging expertise. The consortium was approved as a nonprofit organization in 1992 and has grown to support 24 private colleges, universities and seminaries—serving more than 47,500 students and faculty throughout the state.

“PALNI is a trailblazer in collaboration at scale,” says Kirsten Leonard, PALNI Executive Director. “We are proud to be an organization that consortia worldwide turn to for guidance in leveraging the staff expertise within their supported institutions’ libraries to improve services to students, reduce duplication of efforts, and affordably provide a positive impact to the institutional mission that rivals larger research libraries.”

During its first three decades, PALNI has navigated the evolving challenges of higher education to attain notable success. What began as a joint initiative among libraries to make automation more affordable has transformed into a leading example of what it takes for academic libraries to work together and achieve more at scale. All supported institutions appoint a library dean or director to serve on PALNI’s board of directors, providing strategic and financial direction. Librarian Brooke Cox represents DePauw University on PALNI’s board.