The Alberta Library
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Created in 1997, The Alberta Library (TAL) is a not-for-profit consortium of 49 member libraries and library systems in over 300 locations in the province of Alberta. Members include public, post-secondary, government and special libraries.
The Alberta Library's mission is to strengthen communities through collaboration. The organization acts a focal point of collaboration by engaging the library community to create dynamic services so that all Albertans have easy access to a wide range of library resources and programs. Member libraries work together to take advantage of changing technologies, find solutions and seize new opportunities.
TAL provides a variety of services to (or through) its members, including:
- a library card distributed to library patrons by member libraries that can be used at any other member library (the TAL Card)
- a search engine that provides a single interface to search all member library catalogues (TAL Online)
- negotiating pricing for licenses to electronic resources
- an annual library technology conference (Netspeed)
TAL also administers the Online Reference Centre (ORC) which provides free digital references resources for use in Alberta K-12 schools. The ORC is funded through Alberta Education.
