The Massachusetts Library System has entered into a new collaboration with the Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium (MHEC) for the Materials and Supplies Cooperative Purchasing Program. We anticipate this partnership will result in MLS members joining MHEC to take advantage of cooperative pricing for the procurement of library materials and supplies.

MHEC is a New England-wide purchasing consortium based at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst Campus and is open to all public and private institution of higher education, municipalities, schools and educational organizations throughout Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut. MHEC uses its large member base and procurement expertise to negotiate high costsavings for members. MLS will be working closely with MHEC to ensure the same materials and supplies will be available, but at better price points. With this new partnership, MLS member libraries will join MHEC as members in order to take advantage of the new discounts. As with the current MLS Materials and Supplies Coop, membership will be at no cost.

For additional information on MHEC’s current member benefits, contracts, and participating vendors, please go to the following webpage: http://www.mhec.net/

Over the next several months, MLS will be working with MHEC to create, analyze and award bids for more competitive materials and supplies contracts. We anticipate new contracts will be in place for September 1. Wewill be working with our vendors to extend our current contracts so there is no gap in discounts being offered. In order to ensure the contracts meet the ongoing needs of MLS Libraries, we ask you to fill out the following 5-minute survey.

http://survey.constantcontact.com/survey/a07e5v91w0vh1j9le2o/start

In addition to the survey, we are looking for individuals that would be willing to participate in portions of the process should the opportunity arise. If you have questions or would like to volunteer, please email Catherine Utt at Catherine@masslibsystem.org or call 508-357-2121 / 866-627-7228. Or you may contact either Paul Coute (pcoute@mhec.net) or Stacey Wikar (staceywikar@mhec.net) at MHEC for additional information.

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