One town, two marine labs, one library? The marine science and engineering libraries of Moss Landing experiment with commensualism

In late 1998 a unique set of circumstances provided an opportunity for the two marine science institutions of Moss Landing, California to propose a mutually beneficial arrangement for the provision of library services. The planning process, implementation to date, and future directions will be presented. #1 Moss Landing, California, a community of a few hundred residents, is located in the center of the crescent defining the Monterey Bay with the Monterey Bay Submarine Canyon and the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve as its front and back yards. For decades Moss Landing has been a fishing village most notably home to Phil's Fish Market. In 1965 a former cannery became the home of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML), a graduate school for the California State University. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake demolished MLML and sent its faculty, staff and students on a ten-year absence from Moss Landing. In 1996 the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) moved into its first permanent facility. This twelve-year old private, non-profit institute had selected Moss Landing as the ideal location before the demolition of MLML. MBARI's founder and visionary, David Packard, conceived of an organization that would build new tools for oceanography, creating access to the depths of the Monterey Bay Submarine Canyon and new research opportunities for its scientists. #2 MBARI's 1996 move to Moss Landing meant the organization left behind access to the libraries of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and Hopkins Marine Station. In 1997 MBARI hired its first full-time librarian and began assembling a collection of resources. Two years later, the Institute was faced with budget concerns, personnel changes, and the eminent return of MLML to a location equivalent to a walk across campus. MBARI elected to consider alternative methods of providing library services for its staff. I was hired as a consultant in December of 1998 to examine alternative strategies. As the librarian for Moss Landing Marine Laboratories it was a given that the clearest strategy was to link the libraries of these two institutions in some fashion. In March of 1999 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the directors of the respective institutions providing for a newly created library consortium, thereby effectively merging the