Resource Sharing in Libraries

Supplementing your local collection through resource sharing is a smart way to ensure your library has the resources to satisfy the needs of your users. Marshall Breeding’s new Library Technology Report explores technologies and strategies for sharing resources, helping you streamline workflows and improve resource-sharing services by covering key strategies like interlibrary loan, consortial borrowing, document delivery, and shared collections. You’ll also learn about such trends and services as:

• OCLC WorldCat Resource Sharing, and other systems that facilitate cooperative, reciprocal lending
• System-to-system communications that allow integrated systems to interact with resource-sharing environments
• Technical components that reliably automate patron requests, routing to suppliers with tools for tracking, reporting, and staff intervention as needed
• Specialized applications that simplify document delivery, such as Ariel, Odyssey, or OCLC’s Article Exchange
• How the NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol (NCIP) can enable borrowing among consortial libraries using separate integrated library systems 
• The Orbis Cascade Alliance consortium, examined using a case study