Three winners of the 2009 Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Awards were announced on April 15. Representing the best examples of innovative thinking in resource sharing, the award recipients include the Orlando Memory Project, Rapid ILL and Kentucky Libraries Unbound.
The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative Innovation Awards honor each of these organizations for improving patrons’ access to library information through resource sharing. Each award winner receives a $1,000 cash award and will be recognized for their resource sharing efforts on May 13 at the Rethinking Resource Sharing Forum 2009, in Dublin, Ohio.
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 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.