University libraries strive to collect broadly and deeply across many subject areas, and from throughout the world. Amidst a global proliferation of both print and electronic resources, geopolitical challenges, and increased cost and demands of stewardship of print collections, research libraries face unprecedented challenges in maintaining robust, world-class resources for current and future generations of researchers. In the area of print materials, it is clear that one university cannot accomplish these goals alone. Columbia University Libraries has taken a leading role in the development of collaborative collection development initiatives in order to ensure that, collectively, Columbia and its partners extend and maximize both collections budgets and consortial resource sharing networks in ways that will capture and preserve more of the world's intellectual and cultural heritage, diversifying collections, and broadening coverage to align with the global mission of our institutions.

Shared collections agreements among participating libraries ensure broad and deep subject, geographical, and language coverage, while reducing unnecessary duplication of efforts and resources. Working closely with our ReCAP and IvyPlus partner libraries, we are ensuring that our increasingly international students and faculty, present and future, will have timely access to the broadest possible array of resources. 

These efforts are directly facilitated by the established, sophisticated technologies of our resource-sharing networks, such as ReCAP and Borrow Direct. Such networks enable users at partner libraries to easily identify, request, and borrow print materials in the holdings of other institutions. See also Consortial holdings.