Resource Sharing
Cooperative relations improve library media program services and provide better access for students to information, knowledge and learning
Definitions
Resource sharing, also known as interlibrary loan, is essential to the vitality of school library media centers of all types and sizes as a means of greatly expanding the range of materials available to users. Lending between school library media centers is in the school's best interest and should be encouraged.
Resource sharing should serve as an adjunct to, not a substitute for, collection development. Requests to borrow should be sent to the closest member school library media center, using good judgment and common sense, striving to as equitable a distribution as is fair and practical.
[From: SUNLINK Resource Sharing (Interlibrary Loan) Code and Protocol, http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu/ill/protocol.html
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Additional Reading
Fitzgibbons, Shirley A. School and Public Library Relationships: Essential Ingredients in Implementing Educational Reforms and Improving Student Learning. U.S. Department of Education, Assessment of the Role of School and Public Libraries in Support of Educational Reform, Westat, Inc., 1998–2000. Available: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslpubsandj
ournals/slmrb/slmrcontents/volume32000/relationships.cfm#types
Posner, Beth. Rethinking Resource Sharing. Inspiring Libraries. Empowering People. Interface, Volume 30, Number 1, Spring 2008. Available: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/ascla/asclapubs/interf
ace/archives/contentlistingby/volume30/Rethinking_Resource_Sharing.cfm
Webster, Peter. Interconnected and Innovative Libraries: Factors Tying Libraries More Closely Together. Library Trends, 54(3), 382-393, 2006.
Web Resources
NOVELny - the New York Online Virtual Electronic Library.
NOVELNY provides authoritative, reliable and accurate information that is approved by expert librarians and updated frequently. A wide variety of resources − books, magazines, newspapers, research and reference sources and more are available to New York State residents with NO FEES 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
School Library Systems Program
The School Library Systems program provides a formalized network for public and nonpublic school library media centers across the State and provides for the development of a standardized automated catalog which enhances interlibrary loan of resources among the participating schools. School Library Systems transact over 500,000 interlibrary loans each year. http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/slssap/index.html
New York State Library - Guidelines for Resource Sharing
The Coordinated Collection Development Program has developed these guidelines for resource sharing with the assistance of the Reference and Research Library Resources Systems. The purpose of this program is to enhance academic library collections thereby strengthening regional collections that are available via resource sharing. http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/libdev/ccda/
Rethinking Resource Sharing
The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative is an ad hoc group that advocates for a revolution in the way libraries conduct resource sharing. http://www.rethinkingresourcesharing.org/
[Photo courtesy New York Library Association]