WHY JOIN TRAIL?
Your institution becomes associated with a national open access digitization project that is highly visible and successful - one of the best digitization projects around.
Member institutions have a voice in current and future plans for TRAIL.
Joining TRAIL provides an opportunity to collaborate and support persistent, sustainable open access to digital technical material.
REPRESENT YOUR INSTITUTION'S PERSPECTIVE AND PRIORITIES
Institutions may have space needs, user needs, or materials in poor condition that need immediate attention. These needs can be met through digitization efforts. Members on the Steering Committee and Working Groups decide and prioritize what will be digitized.
Gain valuable library space and collection management resources by recommending or donating collections/items to the project for scanning.
Members can access project working documentation, reports, and collection analysis to aid in collection management decisions for their home libraries.
CONTENT DISCOVERY FOR YOUR USERS
The search interface www.technicalreports.org provides immediate access to digitized content - add this resource to your electronic resource/database list.
ACCESS OR OFFER SUBJECT EXPERTISE
Members can supply subject expertise, technical assistance, or other in-kind contributions to the program, extending the accrued benefits to all participants. For institutions without such local expertise, members may rely on the expertise of fellow participants to understand the history and background of difficult-to-use print technical report series in their collections.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
There are professional development opportunities for librarians through the participation in and support of an open access project.
Opportunities for TRAIL members to get involved:
- contribute, solicit, collect, and organize content before sending to our central processing area
- work on recruitment and training of new members
- develop marketing plans for promotion and communication
- support TRAIL’s social media outreach
- coordinate the collection and distribution of metrics
- develop tools to process and access TRAIL content
- explore grants and other funding opportunities.
WHAT CAN NEW MEMBERS OFFER?
New members allow us to do more. The economies of scale or cost advantages due to increased membership allows us to advance the work of the project. TRAIL is a membership-supported project.
