NEOS Library Consortium
The NEOS Library Consortium consists of 17 Canadian university, college, government, and hospital libraries with 49 sites between them. Patrons (i.e. students, faculty, staff) belonging to any NEOS library have seamless access to most of the substantial holdings shared by NEOS members. As of March 31, 2009, NEOS holdings were 10,867,551 volumes (books, periodicals, microform). The substantial additional holdings of electronic books, databases, and journals are not included because licensing arrangements often limit these to primary users of each library. Most NEOS libraries and branches are located in Edmonton or the central and northern areas of Alberta : Camrose, Devon, Fairview, Grande Prairie, Lacombe, Lloydminster, Olds, Red Deer, St. Albert, Sherwood Park, Vegreville. There is one member site in Calgary. NEOS member libraries collaborate in many ways: History and significance. In 1994, the University of Alberta Libraries spearheaded an "alliance of academic and government libraries" around Edmonton, Alberta, Canada to "create a union catalogue of their regional holdings." The overall goal, was to "provide cost-efficient access" to the various libraries' respective clients through the sharing of resources. The descriptive acronym NEOS certainly reflected the original task of "Networking Edmonton’s On-line Services” but quickly became obsolete  as libraries outside Edmonton joined the consortium; nevertheless, "NEOS" has stuck. In a 2009 interview on the history of the University of Alberta Libraries, Ernie Ingles (Vice-Provost & Chief Librarian) commented on the significance of the NEOS consortium. For example,