A commitment to equity through technology

Heather Teysko entered the library world as a vendor in the world of online music, with Classical.com. She launched the Naxos Music Library into the academic market, and then discovered a deep joy working with consortia, at the Califa Group, California's largest statewide consortium with over 220 members. 

During her ten years at Califa she negotiated hundreds of vendor contracts for members (with an annual savings average of $4.2 million) and introduced dozens of new vendors to the market. 

But her passion has always been in ebooks; she spearheaded the enki project, the first statewide ebook collection on an open source platform with content purchased directly from publishers, rather than through a vendor, giving them more ownership and flexibility with their collection.

More recently, Heather worked with LYRASIS on The Palace Project, a new open source ebook platform created in partnership with the Digital Public Library of America, and funded by The Knight Foundation. 

Heather's CV

Key Projects

The Palace Project, a joint project with the Digital Public Library of America and LYRASIS. 
Handled online marketing and customer success. 
the enki platform, an open source ebook platform, the first statewide collection of its kind. 
Negotiated publisher deals, and oversaw the Califa side in this partnership with Contra Costa County Library.
The Edgy Librarian, an online conference started during the height of the Great Recession, before online conferences were a thing we were all sick of. It was one of the earliest online library conferences, and became a yearly event in partnership with InfoPeople.

Publications and media mentions

Library consortia : models for collaboration and sustainability / [edited by] Valerie Horton and Greg Pronevitz
  • Case study 2. The Enki experiment : library e-book consortia system / Linda Crowe and Heather Teysko
    More detail: https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/6619016
    • Califa Launches Enki, a Lending Platform for Direct Ebook Distribution

    Full article:: https://www.libraryjournal.com/story/Book%20News/califa-launches-enki-a-lending-platform-for-direct-ebook-distribution

    Libraries

    New Product News Columnist for Public Libraries Magazine

    From 2013-2015

    Presentations for enki at Internet Librarian 2014, CLA 2012 and 2013
    More recently, taught Podcasting for ALA Continuing Ed from 2020-2022.
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