ALA creates new resource-sharing section

Citation

(2005), "ALA creates new resource-sharing section", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 33 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilds.2005.12233aab.016

ALA creates new resource-sharing section

Mary Hollerich at Northwestern University sent us this news from ALA. We think that it is worth printing in full, especially because of the new committee’s international emphasis.Resource sharing enthusiasts have a new place to call home in a newly-created section within the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources Section (STARS), is a forum where practitioners and vendors discuss issues and collaborate on projects of mutual interest across the full range of resource sharing activities, including interlibrary loan, document delivery, remote circulation, cooperative reference, and cooperative collection development.

STARS objectives are to provide education and training opportunities for resource sharing practitioners, sponsor research projects and publish results, monitor licensing and copyright legislation, produce conference programs, and work with vendors to improve resource sharing products and services.

Like other RUSA sections, STARS conducts its work through a variety of specialized committees and discussion groups, the first of which are just being formed:

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  Codes, Guidelines, and Technical Standards Committee;

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  Education and Training Committee;

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  Interlibrary Loan Committee;

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  Interlibrary Loan Discussion Group;

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  International ILL Committee;

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  Legislation and Licensing Committee; and

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  Vendor Relations Committee.

STARS committees will meet for the first time at the ALA 2005 Midwinter Meeting in Boston. Over the course of the next year or two, STARS will phase in additional committees and discussion groups devoted to remote circulation, cooperative reference, cooperative collection development, and access services.

Some of the projects that STARS committees expect to undertake during the section’s first three years of operation include:

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  develop web-based ILL courses;

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  develop a model curriculum for library schools;

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  produce conference programs on copyright and licensing issues affecting resource sharing;

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  instruct resource sharing practitioners on lobbying techniques for important legislation;

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  establish a forum for providing vendors with feedback on resource sharing products;

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  sponsor international resource sharing efforts, research projects, and exchange programs;

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  develop and publish finding aids for locating international materials;

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  develop a national mentoring program for ILL librarians; and

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  develop a clearinghouse of papers given at ILL conferences/meetings.

STARS membership is open to all interested librarians, library staff, vendors, and library school students. International librarians may join ALA at a special rate of US$60, but RUSA membership costs an additional US$45. STARS encourages our international colleagues to join us in this exciting endeavor, but that you must be a member of ALA, RUSA, and STARS if you wish to serve on a STARS committee. See www.ala.org for additional membership information.

For more information, contact Mary Hollerich, Northwestern University School of Law Library, hollerich@northwestern.edu or 1-312-503-0300. The STARS implementation schedule, committee rosters, volunteer forms, and other useful documents are available at www.ala.org/rusa/, then click on STARS.