November 29, 2019. The time has come: on 1 January 2020, the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries will switch to SLSP. In 2000, the cantonal universities, the ETH Domain, the universities of applied sciences and the National Library founded the consortium. From the outset, the ETH-Bibliothek led the consortium as a project. The transition to a permanent organisation has been under discussion for some time. With SLSP, the right vessel was found, which is why the consortium was integrated into the project proposals for SLSP from the outset. At the end of August, the SLSP's administrative board approved the consortium's transition to SLSP.

The basis for the approval is the signing of the consortium agreement by all members (formerly primary partners). The secondary partners become new consortium customers. The consortium signs a service contract with SLSP, which secures operation until the end of 2023. The office of the consortium will be renamed "Team Konsortialdienste" as of January 1, 2020. After twelve years as head of the consortium's office, Pascalia Boutsiouci will not move to SLSP, but will take on a new challenge at the ETH-Bibliothek. The current member of the consortium, Susanne Aerni, will take over the management. Fabian Felder, Loretta Rogger, Robin Meyer and Stephanie Tettamanti also remain in the team. Currently vacant positions are advertised, we are looking forward to numerous applications. The team will be located within walking distance of SLSP's main address as a temporary solution, as there are not enough workplaces available for the Consortium Services team due to renovation work on SLSP's premises.

The tasks of the consortium do not change with the change to SLSP. The Consortium continues to exist as a simple partnership with the primary objective of negotiating and jointly procuring electronic information products for all Swiss universities and consortium customers. The "New Licensing and Publication Models / Open Access" unit, which is still co-financed by swissuniversities, also continues to be part of the consortium and is responsible for promoting the transformation to Open Access in Switzerland. Once the transition has been completed, opportunities for increased cooperation and integration in SLSP will be explored and tackled. We are looking forward to the cooperation and welcome the "Team Konsortialdienste".