Rethinking Resource Sharing.
Inspiring Librarians. Empowering People.

The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative is an ad hoc group that advocates for a revolution in the way libraries conduct resource sharing. The group has written a Manifesto for Resource Sharing, which outlines a set of principles that support more open resource sharing.

The Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Awards Committee has announced the winners for the 2008 Awards. This year’s recipients are the North Carolina Libraries for Virtual Education (NC LIVE) and the Information Delivery Services Project (IDS) in New York.

NC LIVE received the award for making more than 500 hours of licensed PBS videos available to its 198 members via streaming video files and significantly improving user access by eliminating the need to share physical copies of the material.

The IDS was recognized for designing rapid access to more than seven million volumes for 140,000 students and 10,000 faculty members. The project was developed by a team at SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library and currently serves 27 academic libraries in New York, both public and private.

Each winner will receive a cash prize of $1,000. The awards will be presented at the ALA RUSA STARS Rethinking Resource Sharing ALA Preconference, June 27, in Anaheim, California. In addition, recipients have been invited to present at Rethinking Access to Information: Evolving Perspectives on Information Content Delivery, in Boston, August 5-7. Funding for the Innovation Awards was provided by the Alliance of Library Service Networks.

Want to learn more? Attend the upcoming ALA Preconference in Anaheim, CA, Throw Off Your Policies and Expose Your Resources: Rethinking Resource Sharing or one of the many other upcoming Rethinking Resource Sharing presentations.