Resource sharing is the heart of librarianship. And the heart of OCLC. Whether it’s metadata, workflows, infrastructure, or library materials, sharing is embedded deep in a librarian’s psyche and powered by our technology platform.

It’s no surprise, then, that resource sharing is one of the topics on our blog that always gets the most traffic—this year and last year. This year, our posts on Tipasa, interlibrary loan trends, and shared print collections are among the most popular based on views and visits. Last year, it was interlibrary loan trends as well, along with a contest to name our new ILL management system.

Clearly, after 50 years of the cooperative, the community continues to reinvent resource sharing—making it even easier for more types of libraries and groups to support one another. I invite you to enjoy these posts once again. And to keep on caring about resource sharing.

Resource Sharing is the top #OCLCnext blog topic for 2017. Click To Tweet

Looking at interlibrary loan, 2016 edition

By Christa Starck, OCLC Senior Product Manager, Resource Sharing

Everyone likes reading about lists and trends. I guess it’s part of our natural curiosity to wonder who’s in the top ten and to analyze what direction our culture or profession appears to be headed.

In the case of interlibrary loan (ILL), it’s also a lot of fun! The ILL community enjoys the data as well. Here are the latest themes in the interlibrary loan world based on our data. Read more…

 

Come on in, the water’s fine

By Carla G. Sands, Interlibrary Loan Specialist, Gabriele Library, Immaculata University

In the summer of 2016, I received a phone call from OCLC asking if I’d be interested in becoming one of the first early adopters for a service that would be replacing ILLiad. It would be an enhanced WorldShare ILL system that would include many of the unique features of ILLiad. Move away from ILLiad? And do so at the “bleeding edge” of a new service? And being not much of a techie, the idea of changing any computer-based system always seems like a challenge. At that very moment, the idea seemed overwhelming and, frankly, hugely unsettling. Read more…

 

Sharing resource sharing

By Katie Birch, Executive Director, OCLC Resource Sharing

I’ve been working in interlibrary loan a long time and the collaboration I see within this group of librarians is amazing. Our resource sharing community has nearly 50 years of shared experience, and that is a critical resource for our future. Our membership is also a passionate and engaged worldwide community that, together, fills an ILL request every two seconds. We will take that experience and passion and use it to build cooperative services and resources that better meet the challenges of an increasingly connected, worldwide audience. Read more…

 

A change in focus on library collections and spaces

By Rick Lugg, Executive Director, Sustainable Collection Services

As a library community, we face a large task: to understand and manage print book collections in new ways. Librarians first need to guarantee that nothing disappears from the collective collection—that the scholarly and cultural record remains intact. We also need to assure that material in shared collections remains available to users quickly when needed. Only then can we responsibly consider sharing, storage, or withdrawal. Good data about collections can help establish priorities and focus. Read more…

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Registration open for 2018 OCLC Resource Sharing Conference

OCLC invites all ILL professionals to Jacksonville, Florida, USA, to share the latest in resource sharing, including innovative approaches to patron service and interlibrary loan workflows. At next year’s conference, you’ll find ways to improve operational efficiency, save time, and better connect end users to the information they need. Register today for this unique opportunity to interact with a very knowledgeable community of resource sharing professionals.