Excelsior College, a distance-learning institution based in Albany, N.Y., with 33,000 students scattered across the country, has outsourced its library services to the Johns Hopkins University, where a team of four employees is dedicated to maintaining Excelsior’s virtual library and assisting its students with questions both online and over the phone. Word is that Johns Hopkins Library will get $1 million for this service. This is part of Johns Hopkins’ Entrepreneurial Library Program. Excelsior will pay its own licenses and subscriptions separately from Johns Hopkins’ contracts. See – “Library For Hire: Johns Hopkins U. Sells Services to an Online College,” by Caitlin Moran, Chronicle of Higher Education, December 10, 2008.
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