Led by Holly Zanville assisted by the communications firm, Weathers Strategy Group, the Learn & Work Ecosystem Library is a digital special-collection library established in 2021. The Library collects, curates, and connects digital resources to help users navigate the complex landscape of education, training, employment, and work. CURE (Richmond, Virginia) provides technology services to the Library.
The Library’s expanding collection includes descriptions of 12 key components of the learn-and-work ecosystem, glossary of key terms (available as a free embeddable tool to other organizations’ external websites), topic briefs, initiatives, organization profiles, and an archive to preserve disappearing historical documents and websites.
Other key features of the Library:
- Time-stamping to indicate recent of content
- Digital accessibility compliance
- Content available in 12 languages
- Special project partnerships that distribute their resources with the Library
- Multiple search options: dynamic index of content, key word, type of content, 26 stakeholder groups, AI bot, latest content
- Relational Maps
- About section describes the Why, How and What around the Library
- National Advisory Board
- Commitment to open access (Creative Commons License)
- Model that invites community engagement
- Newsroom for articles, blogs, reports
- Library Lens: research reports on trends, content analyses
- Top Five: monthly report of top 5 searches
- Weekly Stats: report on content sand use growth issued weekly
- Outreach Center: events, tools
- Crossword Puzzles
The Library offers a unique service as a “special project” hub—aggregating and linking shareable resources to support more than 10 innovative efforts across the ecosystem. Examples of key partnerships:
- The Library powers the SHRM Foundation’s Skills First Future Library at their Center for Skills First Futures launched in June 2025.
- The Library provides a hub for the LER Accelerator Coalition led by AACRAO. The following organizations comprise the Coalition: 1EdTech Consortium; American Association of Community Colleges (AACC); American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO); American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U); American Council on Education (ACE); Association for Institutional Research (AIR); Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN); Digital Credentials Consortium (DCC); EDUCAUSE; National Academic Advising Association (NACADA); National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE); UPCEA
Core seed funding for the Library came from an anonymous donor fund to the GW-PSCWP to support the Library's prototype development. The U.S. Department of Education's IES grant to SUNY Empire State College for Credential As You Go (2021 – 2024) helped support the Library's development. Since 2024, the Library has been supported by special project subcontracts for services and a continuing anonymous donor grant fund to the 1EdTech Foundation with which the Library is affiliated.