originally: http://www.oclc.org/programs/shares/vision.htm
SHARES vision statement — 2005The SHARES Executive Group created this Vision Statement in 2005 to guide and give direction to the partnership. SHARES partners were asked for comments via the rlg-shares discussion list and the draft was also discussed at the June 2005 SHARES Round Table in Chicago (in conjunction with the American Library Association annual conference). BackgroundThe success of SHARES is rooted in collaboration among its participants and in the richness of their shared collections. For over two decades SHARES has provided participants access as a complement to ownership, building programs and partnerships that have supported scholarly inquiry in many forms. It is time once again to redefine and refocus our efforts on behalf of the many constituencies that benefit from SHARES protocols. Our fundamental assumption remains constant: that SHARES's goal is to facilitate seamless end-user access both to SHARES institutions' collections and to other resources in an increasingly digital environment. The two major facets of SHARES—on-site access and interlibrary loan/document delivery—will continue as important elements in the plan to achieve more comprehensive and integrated access for users. The ways in which scholars seek, discover, and acquire information have changed radically since 1996, when the previous SHARES vision statement was created. Likewise, the resource-sharing landscape has been transformed by technology, economics, and the revolutionary change in our learning culture brought on by the Internet. SHARES exists now as one in a vast array of resource-sharing opportunities available to its participants, though still a notably effective and reliable one. The ongoing success of SHARES will depend on our ability to evolve and innovate in step with the new information environment, and to maximize the special and often unique benefits delivered by the partnership to end users and staff at its participating institutions. Essentially, what the research community is seeking is information itself. It should not matter to the researcher where the information is located—in cyberspace, in the user's home library, in a storage facility, or at another institution. Users should be able to rely on their libraries to integrate research and discovery tools with the delivery of information in ways that meet users' changing needs and expectations. Librarians need to see themselves as managers of complex systems that include (1) seamless user interfaces, (2) management of both physical and electronic resources, and (3) the capability to rapidly locate and deliver these resources to users with a minimum of human mediation. The evolving learning, teaching, and research climate demands this type of response. I. Leveraging technologyTo keep pace with our users' expectations about information delivery, the SHARES Executive Group urges RLG's leadership and membership to move beyond the current definition of system interoperability—"the ability to exchange information across multiple systems"—to embrace the creation of a truly seamless information delivery process as our goal. We must recognize that current standards and protocols are tools that provide value only in the current technological context. These standards will not continue to meet research needs without ongoing cooperative development. We have the opportunity to provide leadership in promoting systems standardization as well as integrating the researcher's discovery process and the resource-sharing delivery process into what appears to the user to be a seamless whole. Action itemsSHARES participants engage with RLG and developers of other databases, integrated library systems, and/or ILL systems to:
II. Strengthening the SHARES commitment and recognizing excellenceThe SHARES partnership is committed to providing superior interlibrary loan service and cooperation to the standards outlined in the RLG annual commitment agreement. The partnership recognizes participant institutions who meet the highest levels of measurable service standards (e.g., turnaround time, fill rate, use of Ariel, sound shipping practices). Strong administrative support of each ILL operation benefits all SHARES partners. To further this commitment, we endeavor to identify and implement new ways to support the efforts of the SHARES Practitioners Council in monitoring performance. Action items1. Create a task force on performance standards of individuals from SHARES institutions who represent a broad range of partner sizes, scopes, and participation levels. The task force's work includes but is not limited to:
2. SHARES will publicly recognize those institutions who meet or exceed performance standards. This will be achieved by:
3. SHARES working groups, in partnership with RLG, will foster the cooperative spirit among SHARES participants by:
III. Developing new services and partnersSHARES will continually refine and sometimes reinvent itself to remain useful. Built on a corps of committed participants, SHARES will enhance and strengthen participation by attracting new partners and developing new services. Action items1. Recruit new SHARES partners. The SHARES Executive Group should:
2. Determine through sampling and surveys what kinds of requests are not being filled or loaned among SHARES partners and recommend new services that will increase the fill rate and decrease the turnaround time of items requested. For example:
3. Design new and enhanced end-user services that provide faster delivery to the desktop and new incentives for libraries to participate in SHARES. New SHARES services need to reflect the prevailing resource-sharing environment and emerging concepts of how best to address users' information and delivery needs. For example:
IV. Sharing expertiseSHARES supports the sharing of experience and best practices among interlibrary loan staff at all participating institutions with respect to technologies, workflow efficiencies, and procedural expertise. SHARES encourages the development of new competencies that enable ILL staff to provide the highest quality service possible; the program aims to facilitate identifying experts in various aspects of resource sharing within the remarkable talent pool at SHARES libraries. Action items1. Establish a presence on the RLG SHARES Web site where expertise can be shared. A "Sharing Expertise" index page would carry links to guidelines and best practices on topics such as:
2. The SHARES Executive Group, SHARES Practitioners Council, or a new group would be responsible for:
V. Monitoring cost issuesFor SHARES to meet equitably the needs of both net lenders and net borrowers and to remain an attractive option for new and existing participants, net-lending fees and cost-related aspects of the SHARES guidelines should be consistent with a resource-sharing model, as opposed to a model of full cost recovery. This model better serves the central purpose of SHARES—to provide participant access to the world's major academic and art library collections—than the business model, aimed at profitability, or the cost recovery model, which may vary significantly depending on institutional structure. Further, in support of a resource-sharing model, net-lending fees must be established that will allow net borrowers to maximize the value of their SHARES partnership while still not imposing an unreasonable burden on large net lenders. The cost impact of ILL software and SHARES guidelines compliance will also need to be considered, as well as the "soft" costs of resolving issues of interoperability between ILL Manager and other ISO-compliant systems. Action items1. By means of direct communications with SHARES participants, monitor the impact of new net-lending fees on:
2. To help monitor the new SHARES international lending fee for intercontinental loans of returnables, create a list by country, maintained on the RLG Web site, that includes:
3. Monitor the impact, if any, of the new net-lending fees on new participant recruitment efforts. 4. The SHARES Executive Group will review the pricing structure every three years. |