About Us
The Ontario Colleges Library Service (OCLS) delivers efficient, reliable services to the province’s 24 publicly funded colleges and their libraries and learning resource centres. OCLS leverages the collective purchasing power of the colleges to achieve cost efficiencies for the college libraries and works closely with representatives from the college libraries to support the delivery of library services for students, faculty, and staff.
OCLS receives operating funds from the Government of Ontario and reports to a Board elected by the Presidents of the member colleges. College Libraries Ontario (CLO), representing the directors (or designates) of libraries and learning resources of each of the 24 colleges, serves as an advisory group to OCLS.
Services
OCLS provides services that create capacity, efficiency, and cost savings across the college library system.
Providing colleges with access to ACE, the Accessible Content E-Portal, a service that connects students with a growing repository of accessible format texts.
Coordinating a real-time virtual reference service via chat and text message.
Managing procurement agreements with key library service providers in the areas of print and eBook materials selection and acquisition.
Negotiating, managing, and supporting the acquisition and licensing of electronic resources.
Empowering college library staff to evaluate the accessibility of library eResources through a self-audit tool and access to a growing repository of accessibility assessment reports.
Providing sustained financial support for the Learning Portal platform to provide shared access to open learning resources, including the Maamwi hub, from all Ontario colleges.
Supporting consortial project initiatives and contract management for the shared Alma/Primo library management platform.
Enabling authentication of off-campus users for secure access to the library’s online resources via centralized EZproxy management and technical support.
Facilitating forward-thinking research projects on topics of interest to the college libraries.