Rethinking Resource Sharing Around the World

Abstract

In 2005, a group of librarians, library system vendors and library technology specialists from North America came together around the realization that library resource sharing, in the traditional sense, was library-focused, rather than customer-focused, and that policies and procedures needed reconsideration and updating. A larger group then formed to begin radically rethinking resource sharing in response to global developments in technology and with a greater focus on customer service. Thus, the Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative (RRSI) was born. In the last ten years, members of the Initiative have created and disseminated A Manifesto for Rethinking Resource Sharing, encompassing these principles. They have also created and recently expanded the STAR Checklist of best practices, which is administered by the STARS (Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources Section) Rethinking Resource Sharing Policies Committee of RUSA, the Reference and User Services Association, a division of ALA, the American Library Association. The Checklist is a progressive list of policies and best practices intended to reduce barriers to resource sharing between libraries and their users as well as among libraries of all types around the world. This paper discusses the Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative, its Manifesto and STAR Checklist, the international use and impact of these tools, and invites you to join the RRSI in rethinking our Manifesto as it enters its second decade.