An introduction and short history

NILRC: Network of Illinois Learning Resources in Community Colleges, originally the Northern Illinois Learning Resources Cooperative, celebrates thirty years of service in 2005. The not-for-for profit corporation was chartered in July 1975, through the efforts of LRC directors at eight suburban Chicago community colleges. Today, its membership numbers fifty-one community colleges and upper division colleges and universities in Illinois and Missouri.

NILRC traces its origins to 1973 when the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) awarded its founding members a HECA planning grant. The grant provided seed money for the members to meet on a regular basis to investigate the cooperative sharing of locally produced instructional materials. A legal, independent not-for-profit corporation was chartered in 1975 to allow the organization to enter into contracts with a variety of vendors.

NILRC is one of the oldest community college learning resources cooperatives in the nation. Although it began as a grass roots organization to meet the basic needs of learning resources centers at community colleges, it has become a leader in the development and use of a variety of instructional resources and technologies. It was one of the first academic organizations to foster satellite teleconferencing and satellite delivery of video resource materials. In the early 1980s it developed a computerized online circulation control and records management system. The system, known as the Comprehensive Automated Learning Resources System (CALS), was the forerunner of today's commercial online library circulation systems and Online Public Access Catalogs (OPACS).

The organization has also supported a wide variety of staff development programs over the years, including workshops on telecommunications, technical repair of equipment, computer applications in LRCs, administrative issues in computer lab development, library reference services, instructional uses of the Internet, and marketing library and teleweb services. It has sponsored telecourse and teleweb preview days, faculty recognition awards, and institutional recognition awards for its members. Data collected from its members has provided useful information for comparative and cooperative purposes.

The cooperative is governed by a Council of Delegates representing each member institution. Council members have a variety of backgrounds and responsibilities on their campuses ranging from LRC deans to directors of educational technologies. This diversity enriches the organization, nurtures its projects, and facilitates the exchange of ideas and resources.

Institutions choose to be either "full" or "associate" members. Full members are afforded voting rights in the corporation. Full members must attend regular Council of Delegates meetings each year and actively serve on standing committees. Associate members attend meetings, participate on committees, and take advantage of all the services and programs arranged by the organization though they have no voting privileges. Corporate offices, located in River Forest, Illinois, and Blanchardville, WI, are managed by an executive director and an executive office business manager.

The organization supports itself in three ways-membership dues, surcharge fees on group purchases, and investment. Dues are the same for both full and associate members. A surcharge is placed on group purchases coordinated by the corporate office.

Three general goals guide NILRC activities:

■          Cost effective group purchases of resource materials, equipment and services

■           Exchange and sharing of resources and information, and

■          Staff development/continuing education activities

Although the organization was founded by learning resources professionals, each member learning resource is unique and distinct. The variety of cooperative ventures that NILRC has undertaken over the years reflects this diversity.

In the area of group purchases, members choose from an array of ongoing discount offers. The offers are both one-time offerings and continuing service arrangements. At this time, the organization has in place over a dozen formally negotiated standing group discount arrangements with vendors. These include discounts on library security devices, visual products, projection and theater lamps, video tape duplication services, and video/film programs.

NILRC community colleges and universities are leaders in offering cost-effective instruction via non-traditional formats. One of the most successful examples of group purchases is the delivery of telecourses and more recently, teleweb courses. Working cooperatively, NILRC members are able to take risks and provide quality programming at reduced cost. Over the years, NILRC has invested more than $250,000 in the development of new telecourses. The investment gives NILRC full rights to the courses as they become available. The up-front investment allows NILRC members to buy into the courses at reduced rates.

Based on pricing instituted by various producers, NILRC members have realized more than a 50 percent savings on some productions. Over the past thirty years, NILRC has invested more that $850,000 in telecourse co-productions.

Member institutions have been offering telecourses for several years utilizing contracts for over fifty telecourse licenses NILRC currently holds. The colleges are unique in non-broadcast videocassette delivery that takes instruction directly to the student. Each college uses a basic model of delivery which incorporates branch campuses and local libraries as support centers. NILRC offers membership a well-organized support system for cassette-based delivery of instructional telecourses. To assist members in making sufficient materials available to students, NILRC contracts for low cost video duplication services from private vendors.

Since 1986, when consolidated statistics were first collected, more than 500,000 students have enrolled in NILRC telecourses, 110,810 in the last three years. Many of these students-working parents, people with disabilities, students with non-traditional work schedules—would not have been served as effectively with instruction delivered on the college campus.

But NILRC is more than a legal entity providing cost-effective services to its members. It is people. It is networking. It is cooperative problem-solving. It is resource sharing. It is a nationally recognized force in distance learning and learning resources based in the Midwest. The organization has been the conduit for information sharing, both formally at regular meetings and informally by one-on-one contact. One member asking a question about a product of vendor has, in many cases, led to a cooperative group purchase.

Another reason for the success of NILRC over the years is communication which has enabled the cooperative to work closely with other regional consortia in disseminating information for coordinated lobbying on national legislation related to new technologies for instructional delivery, and copyright and related matters.

NILRC s expertise in the area of telecommunications is recognized across the state. NILRC was awarded a LSCA Title III planning grant in 1988-89 from the Illinois State Library to research the requirements for a statewide library telecommunications network which would provide high quality voice, data and video capabilities. The second phase identified specific technical requirements for building the network.

Following this work, a position paper, The State of Educational Telecommunications in Illinois, A Community College Perspective was published in November 1990. The document detailed actions necessary to develop a community college-based telecommunications network. Several NILRC delegates and NILRC's executive director served on the 1992 Illinois Community College Board Telecommunications Task Force which issued a report on the need for, and development of, a comprehensive statewide community college-based telecommunications system.

That document provided the basis for which the State of Illinois began to fund regional telecommunications initiatives in 1993. These initiatives foresaw the development of the Illinois Century Network in 1998.

In addition to a variety of development activities for all levels of LRC staff, NILRC has funded information infrastructure grants for members to deepen college technological capabilities through grants from the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB).

As NILRC entered the new century, it reaffirmed its mission to pioneer new ventures in learning technologies. Cooperative relationships with library systems, professional organizations and other regional consortia are in progress. Greater emphasis is being placed on staff development in a rapidly changing information and communication environment.

While NILRC continues to evolve, it remains committed to the provision of services that will enhance the ability of its members to better serve their users and the larger education/library community across the region.

 September 2005