Mission

Lyrasis empowers libraries, archives and museums through content services, open technologies and community-based solutions that expand access to information, preserve cultural heritage, and advance the shared goals of our members and the communities we serve. Collaboratively, we build a future that is inclusive, equitable, accessible and sustainable.

Illustration of large diverse group reading

Lyrasis is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization whose mission is to support enduring access to the world’s shared academic, scientific and cultural heritage through leadership in open technologies, content services, digital solutions and collaboration with archives, libraries, museums and knowledge communities worldwide. Lyrasis organizational and staff values are: communication, respect, collaboration, impact and service. Lyrasis was created by its members to help them tackle wide-reaching challenges with a collective strength, including: the development and selection of new technology solutions; fostering community-wide projects that help deliver better outcomes and services; content creation, acquisition and management; support for new content models and strategies; and large-scale knowledge management programs unique to collections-holding institutions.

Lyrasis operates with strict fiscal discipline. This commitment ensures the financial health needed to preserve the heart of a nonprofit, enabling it to build a mission-driven team of professionals and an organizational structure capable of creating sustainable global solutions at scale. Ultimately, Lyrasis helps its members amplify their impact and influence, participate in national and international programs, create and deliver better programs and services to their communities, while still maintaining their unique collections, cultures and identities.

Lyrasis Commitment to Diversity, Equity,
Inclusion and Accessibility

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) are core values at Lyrasis. Our mission, to catalyze and enable equitable access to the world’s knowledge and cultural heritage, can only be achieved by inviting and valuing the perspectives, experiences and identities of all people. As such, we are committed to seeking and welcoming diversity in our recruiting, hiring and culture-building practices to create an environment that is equitable, inclusive and accessible for all. Lyrasis works to fulfill this commitment through:

  • Recruiting and interviewing a diverse candidate pool for any and all open positions
  • Enacting robust non-discriminatory practices for hiring, retention and evaluation of team members
  • Welcoming the input and participation from the diverse members of our programs and services communities
  • Creating and supporting a staff-directed DEIA committee to identify and address opportunities and challenges to building equity
  • Identifying opportunities and enacting solutions to make our work and workplace more diverse, equitable, inclusive and accessible

History

Lyrasis, as it currently exists, was created in 2009 by the merger of SOLINET and PALINET, two regional library networks in the eastern U.S. NELINET and the Bibliographical Center for Research (BCR) joined shortly thereafter. In 2019, Lyrasis merged with DuraSpace, a globally recognized leader in open source software technologies. The merger brought together two dynamic communities and made Lyrasis home to ten community-supported programs and 1733 users, all under one organization. In 2021, Lyrasis acquired BiblioLabs, a software company that provided community engagement solutions to libraries. This acquisition led to the creation of the Ebooks and Community Engagement division at Lyrasis, comprised of BiblioBoard, Indie Author Project and The Palace Project services. 

The organizational history of Lyrasis, though, dates all the way back to 1936 and the Philadelphia Bibliographical Center and Union Catalog. You can read the story of Lyrasis in depth in The History of Lyrasis: Nearing A Century of Collaboration & Advancement, researched and curated by our own Katy Klettlinger.