Mid-Atlantic Library Alliance (MALIA)

[lbishop]

The Mid-Atlantic Library Alliance (MALIA, formerly SWING), has a new website: https://mlo22.wildapricot.org/.

One of the chief advantages of becoming a member of this consortium of academic, public, school, and special libraries is that they negotiate with library vendors for discounts and formalize these discounts in Virginia state contracts. As state agencies, all community college libraries could benefit from membership.

Membership rates are rising from $150.00 to $175.00 per year starting in August, but the lower rates are still in effect, and those who join now can get in for half price with renewal by August.

Some of the vendor discounts I rely on are with:
Demco
Brodart
EBSCO
GOBI
Ingram
Jupiter Associates - this micro vendor doesn't offer much in the way of discounts but will special order almost anything. The contracts through MALIA are for library materials, library supplies, and serials. However, the vendor will cheerfully order not-library-specific products with reasonable markups. Those won't be on state contract but eVA approval is simplified by the micro vendor SWAM certification.

Please note that eVA requisitions based on state contracts should reference the contract in the quote and on the invoice, so it is helpful to have these state contract numbers handy when requesting pricing:

Library Supplies Contract LVA-SUP-21-004/CTR005717-1
Library Materials Contract LVA-MAT-22-007/CTR005837-1
Serials Contract LVA-SER-21-003/CTR005713-1

If you go to these listings in the eVA contracts page you may only find summaries, but the full contacts are published on the MALIA website. Pro tip: if you don't discover a quote with the vendor name, just search for 'MALIA.'

I have recently been appointed to the MALIA Board as the community college representative, so if you have any questions I will be happy to try to find answers.

Lisa Bishop

[lbishop]

The Mid-Atlantic Library Association (MALIA, formerly SWING) is accepting new memberships and renewals from all library types. The fee is $175.00 and the ability to take advantage of their state contracts for discounted pricing on library purchases makes it an excellent return on investment! https://mlo22.wildapricot.org/