Volume 36 of Advances in Librarianship seeks to provide a comprehensive broad review of the factors that lead to mergers and other alliances, the methods used to ensure effective and successful collaborations. While corporate mergers make headlines, similar efforts in library and information science are less vociferously touted. They are occurring however amongst libraries, among LIS degree programs, and enterprises such as networks and consortia They are occurring as governments around the world mandate consolidation of operations amongst agencies under their purview in order to reduce or curtail expenditures.