New members may join the BLC if they are based in the northeastern United States and if their application is approved by a two-thirds vote of the board of directors.

According to its bylaws, the consortium's purpose is "to share human and information resources so that the collective strengths support and advance the research and learning of the members’ constituents.

[7] BLC executive directors have included Hannah Stevens as of 2000,[8] Barbara Preece as of 2002,[9] Melissa Trevvett as of 2010,[10] Susan Stearns from 2014 to 2020,[11] and Charlie Barlow since 2020.

[17] Past activities included cooperative collecting and sharing of materials in select subject areas, such as women's studies.

[21] In 2014, the BLC, along with the Orbis Cascade Alliance and other groups, advocated against a publisher price increase on e-books, which they feared would negatively impact academic library budgets.

[27] In 2022, the Davis Educational Foundation awarded the BLC a grant of $215,000 to "accelerate the implementation of controlled digital lending as a mechanism for interlibrary loan.