ABOUT VIVA

WHAT IS VIVA?

The Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) is the consortium of the nonprofit academic libraries within the Commonwealth of Virginia. Members include all of the 39 state-assisted colleges and universities (the 6 doctoral universities, 9 4-year institutions, and 24 community and two-year branch colleges), as well as 32 of the independent (private, nonprofit) institutions and the Library of Virginia.

The Virtual Library of Virginia comprises two major components:

1. Enhanced support of resource sharing of Virginia's exceptional print and microform collections.
2. Shared access to online library resources and improved coordination of collection development throughout VIVA.

MISSION STATEMENT

VIVA's mission is to provide, in an equitable, cooperative and cost-effective manner, enhanced access to library and information resources for the Commonwealth of Virginia's nonprofit academic libraries serving the higher education community.

BENEFITS TO THE COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

VIVA

• Improves faculty and staff productivity through improved intermural access to the vast collections of Virginia's academic libraries.
• Enhances learning and "levels the academic playing field" for Virginia students by providing equal access to high-quality electronic resources to students at all member institutions and by facilitating interlibrary loans throughout the state.
• Saves institutional money and staff time by avoiding duplication of collections.
• Utilizes technology throughout the state to avoid duplication of efforts by individual institutions.

Financial Benefits
VIVA brings $5 of value for every $1 spent. VIVA has realized cooperative purchasing for as little as 8% of the list price for individual institutional purchases of VIVA resources. Range of costs has been 8% - 79% of list price. As of June 30, 2004, VIVA has procured through negotiated contracts approximately 160 databases, with FULL TEXT access to millions of articles and more than 5,600 full text journals and newspapers, as well as nearly 10,000 full text works of poetry and verse drama and over 750,000 other full text scholarly materials (e.g. statistical reports and company financial reports). During this 11 year period (July 1, 1994 - June 30, 2005), VIVA has recorded $150 million in cost avoidance for our public member libraries (comparing the VIVA prices for all VIVA purchases to the list prices, had all public institutions purchased the materials independently).

To learn more about the benefits VIVA provides to the Commonwealth of Virginia, please see Benefits of VIVA.

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

VIVA operates under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). VIVA is headed by a Steering Committee comprising 15 members elected from the member institutions and supported by a variety of committee also comprising members selected from the member institutions. Operational responsibilty for VIVA is conducted by the VIVA staff, currently the Director, Associate Director, and Executive Assistant. For complete information regarding VIVA's organizational structure, please see the MOU and appendices available at http://www.vivalib.org/mou.html.

BUDGET AND FUNDING

Funding
The majority of VIVA's funds come directly from the Virginia General Assembly, augmented by the local institutional library budgets and some outside grants. Funding is allocated to VIVA by the General Assembly on a biennial basis. For the 1994-96, 1996-1998, and 1998-2000 biennia, the Commonwealth provided funding in the amounts of $5.2 million, $4.9 million, and $6.1 million, respectively. For both the 2000-2002 and the 2002-2004 biennia, $8.2 was allocated to VIVA by the General Assembly.

Total funding for the 2004-06 biennium is estimated to be approximately $13.4 million, of which approximately $10.4 million is from the Commonwealth budget. The remaining $3 million originates from member library budgets. Complete information about the VIVA budget is available at http://www.vivalib.org/budget/.