The Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) library consortium established in 1992. It is owned and operated by its supported private college, university, and seminary libraries across the state of Indiana.
While many traditional library consortia act primarily as "buying clubs" to negotiate volume discounts on journal subscriptions and databases, PALNI operates under a model of "deep collaboration". Under this framework, PALNI's member institutions pool their resources, staff expertise, and technological infrastructure to co-develop services, lower operational overhead, and foster innovation. By reducing the duplication of effort across campus libraries, PALNI helps independent higher education institutions contain costs while delivering high-quality academic services to more than 40,000 students.
Supported Member Institutions
PALNI currently supports 24 private academic libraries throughout Indiana. These institutions include:
- Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary
- Anderson University
- Bethel University
- Butler University
- Christian Theological Seminary
- Concordia Theological Seminary
- DePauw University
- Earlham College
- Franklin College
- Goshen College
- Grace College
- Hanover College
- Huntington University
- Manchester University
- Marian University
- Martin University
- Oakland City University
- Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College
- Saint Mary's College
- Taylor University
- Trine University
- University of Evansville
- University of Indianapolis
- Valparaiso University
Core Products and Technological Platforms
PALNI hosts, maintains, and configures a unified suite of state-of-the-art platforms that enable member institutions to manage physical and digital assets under a shared environment.
1. Unified Library Management System (LMS)
PALNI contracts collectively for its supported libraries to utilize a cloud-based library management system through OCLC (Online Computer Library Center). By integrating their cataloging, circulation, acquisitions, and discovery systems into a shared OCLC platform, the network allows member libraries to operate off a unified system. This collective structure drastically reduces licensing costs for individual campuses, simplifies database maintenance, and streamlines regional interlibrary loan workflows.
2. PALNI Open Press
To address the rising costs of academic publishing and the high price of course materials, the consortium operates the PALNI Open Press. Initiated in 2017, this established library-publishing wing provides a suite of open-source and open-access hosting platforms. These tools enable faculty and students to build, remix, and publish academic journals, textbooks, monographs, and digital exhibits without incurring high software maintenance or platform design fees. The key software environments supported include:
* Pressbooks: An easy-to-use book writing and formatting software used primarily to author Open Educational Resources (OER) and open textbooks.
* Open Journal Systems (OJS): A specialized publishing platform utilized for administering and hosting peer-reviewed academic journals.
* Omeka: A content-modeling platform optimized for displaying rich, media-heavy digital museum exhibits and scholarly projects.
* Hyku / Hyrax: Used to construct repositories for student capstones, electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), and institutional publications.
3. PALNI Repository
Powered by Hyku software, the PALNI Repository serves as a collaborative archive for sharing white papers, presentations, conference materials, project documentation, and reports generated across the consortium. This open repository acts as an institutional memory engine, encouraging transparent, peer-to-peer knowledge transfer between the staffs of the member libraries.
4. PALNI Digital Library Collections
The PALNI Digital Collections represent a shared ContentDM environment that pools digitized assets from 18 of the member institutions. This platform showcases unique local history items, including:
* Historical photographs
* Rare and out-of-print books
* Archived local and campus newspapers
* Herbarium specimens and regional historical artwork
Services and Educational Initiatives
Beyond software hosting, PALNI actively funds, coordinates, and deploys cross-institutional initiatives that directly impact affordability and student success.
PALSave Affordable Learning Program
The PALSave initiative is one of PALNI's most high-impact programs, designed to combat the escalating cost of higher education by promoting the adoption, adaptation, and creation of Open Educational Resources (OER). Sponsored in part by grants from organizations such as the Lilly Endowment, Inc., PALSave delivers:
* Textbook Creation Grants: Funding packages of up to $5,000 for faculty members who author original open textbooks or customize existing open resources to align with their curriculum.
* Professional Development & Advocacy: Workshops and training opportunities designed to help faculty members evaluate OER alternatives to traditional, high-cost commercial textbooks.
* OER Cataloging and Discovery Support: Assistance in integrating free, peer-reviewed textbooks into campus library discovery tools so that students can find and use them seamlessly.
Shared Print Preservation and Eastern Academic Scholars' Trust (EAST)
Managing physical book collections is a major spatial and financial challenge for academic libraries. In 2026, PALNI joined the Eastern Academic Scholars' Trust (EAST), a national shared-print program dedicated to preserving and retaining print scholarly records.
* Under this program, four PALNI institutions act as Retention Partners, committing to maintain and protect physical copies of critical books on behalf of the entire network.
* The remaining member schools act as Supporting Partners, gaining access to millions of protected print volumes through the EAST Lending Network. This cooperative framework allows individual libraries to confidently weed or downsize their physical stacks to create study spaces, knowing that a copy of any given academic work is permanently protected nearby.
Resource Sharing & Reciprocal Borrowing
To provide students and faculty with access to a broader catalog of resources than any single campus could afford, PALNI coordinates:
* Interlibrary Loan (ILL): Fast, low-cost document delivery across member systems.
* Statewide Remote Circulation Service (SRCS): Linking over 200 library catalogs across Indiana into a single, unified search-and-request portal.
* Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (MCLS) Partnership: Providing group purchasing rates for software, commercial databases, and professional development training.
Shared Expertise, Consulting, and Working Groups
Because individual private college libraries often have small staffs, PALNI leverages a collective structure of 15 Working Groups. These groups are composed of specialized librarians from across the state who coordinate on distinct functional areas, including:
* Information fluency and instruction
* Strategic planning and facility redesign
* Scholarly communications and copyright consultation
* Reference and database analytics
Librarians from any PALNI institution can request targeted consulting services from these specialized teams, granting even the smallest campus library access to advanced expertise in cataloging, data management, and user-experience design.
