The Valencian public universities have created the Consortium of Valencian University Libraries (BUVAL) to coordinate activities, combine resources and share experiences with the aim of improving the efficiency of their processes and the quality of their services. The five public universities have signed an agreement that has been ratified in the public signing ceremony, held at the Universitat Jaume I of Castelló, by Eva Alcón, Principal of the UJI; Amparo Navarro, Principal of the University of Alacant; Juan José Ruiz, Principal of the Miguel Hernández University of Elche; Virginia Vega, Vice-Principal for Digital Resources and Documentation at the Universitat Politècnica de València and Carlos Hermenegildo Caudevilla, Vice-Principal for Research at the University of Valencia.

The Consortium of Valencian University Libraries establishes a stable cooperation framework. With its implementation, Valencian university libraries expand their field of action, improve their visibility and gain efficiency, with better trained and more motivated professionals. All with the aim of supporting excellence and quality in research and teaching at the five universities.

Among the actions planned by BUVAL, the following stand out: consolidating and improving the library management software shared by the five universities and creating a single or collective catalogue, optimising workflows between the five libraries, designing a specific training plan for their staff, establishing a programme for library staff stays and making joint purchases for the acquisition of digital books and journals.

The event was attended by most of the vice-principals and directors of each university library: Victoria García Esteve, director of the University of Valencia Library; Elías Chumillas Jiménez, director of the UPV Library; Remo Blanes Grande, director of the University of Alacant Library; for the Universitat Jaume I, the vice-principal for Research and Transfer, Jesús Lancis Sáez, and the director of the Library, Vicent Falomir Delcampo, and for the Miguel Hernández University, the vice-principal for Research, Domingo Luis Orozco Beltrán.

BUVAL background

Over the last few years, some cooperative agreements have been sporadically established. One of the first agreements was signed in 2014, the specific collaboration agreement for inter-university lending in Valencia within the framework of Campus Inhabited 5U, which allowed and allows teaching, research, administration and services staff to borrow bibliographic material from any of the participating libraries.  

In 2019, a public tender was launched for the joint subscription for the implementation, support and maintenance of a library management services platform and discovery tool for libraries. As a result, all five libraries have the same library management software, named “Alma”, and the discovery tool “Primo”.

In addition to putting the software out to tender, a proposal for the statutes and the agreement for the constitution of the BUVAL Consortium, the protocol signed by the public universities of the Valencian Community, were drawn up in parallel. These two documents, the agreement and the statutes, have been approved by the governing and social councils of the five universities.

Finally, on 20 January, the library boards unanimously agreed that BUVAL coordination would initially be carried out by the UJI.