Innovation Awards 2009
The Rethinking Resource Sharing (RRS) Innovation Awards recognizes and honors an individual or institution for changes they made to improve users’ access to information through resource sharing in their library, consortium or state. It is hoped that the award will encourage libraries and librarians to make changes in how they do resource sharing to improve service to users. RRS looks for efforts where people didn’t wait for the profession to provide better services for users.
Three 2009 Innovation Awards have been announced:
- Orlando Memory project, a digital archive and social networking community where the users select and contribute content
- RapidILL, a collaborative article requesting and delivery system
- Kentucky Libraries Unbound, a digital collection of local history materials made available via OverDrive.
Each of the three award winners will receive $1,000 and will be recognized for their resource sharing efforts at the Rethinking Resource Sharing Forum 2009 in Dublin, Ohio, on May 13, 2009.
Funding for the 2009 Innovation Awards is provided by the Alliance of Library Service Networks, a group of U.S. independent regional networks that includes Amigos, BCR, FEDLINK, ILLINET, INCOLSA, MINITEX, MLC, MLNC, NELINET, Nylink, OHIONET, Lyrasis, and WiLS. The Nebraska Library Commission is also a member. OCLC and BCR provide on-going support for the initiative.
The Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Awards Committee for 2009:
Beth Farmer, Assistant Director, Tampa Bay Library Consortium. Chair
Mary Lehane, Manager, Resource Sharing Department, York University
Tanner Wray, Director of Public Services, University of Maryland Libraries
Background:
The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative is an ad hoc group that advocates for a complete rethink of the way libraries conduct resource sharing in the context of the global internet revolution and all of the developments that have arisen from that. The group is advocating for a revolution in the way libraries conduct resource sharing. On-going funding for the Initiative is provided by OCLC, Inc. and BCR, with additional support from other organizations.