That’s the name of the conference and the concept as well… “Rethinking Resource Sharing.” I am currently attending this two day forum in Chicago where deconstructing and reimagining the way we get users the materials they need is the order of the day. Originated by he Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc. (PALCI), the Boston Library Consortium (BLC) and the California Digital Library in 2005 after the publication of a Technical White Paper, Rethinking Resource Sharing seeks to form a new global framework that

1. allows individuals to get what they find no matter where they found it, and
2. allows the individual choices based on time, format, delivery method and cost,

With the result that Knowledge seekers will become knowledge and library users, and libraries will be relevant and visible knowledge providers.

This week Rethinking Resource Sharing (RRS) held its 3rd annual Forum at the Big Ten Conference Center in Chicago. There are some truly exciting plans in the works from this dynamic group of academic librarians, public librarians, state librarians, library consortia and other organization staff, and vendors that really take a look at how people get the information they want and need in today’s world, and how libraries can be a part of that process.

Day one kicked off with the always thought-provoking Michael Stephens (Tame the Web), who talked about the social web, technology trends in 2007, and how these things could shape resource sharing. Following Michael’s well-received talk, John Bodfish, Senior Technical Designer/Developer at OCLC PICA, Inc, and member of the Interoperability Working Group of RRS, provided a demo of the proposed “Get It Button.” Currently being developed as a Firefox add-on, the “Get It Button” can be used while viewing a webpage that includes bibliographic resources, such as Amazon.com, a library catalog, an online syllabus, a page from iMDB (The Internet Movie Database), to find out several options for attaining that resource, whether that be purchasing the material from an online vendor, borrowing it free from your local library, or in the case of movies, adding it to your Netflix queue. It’s an astounding piece of programming that we’ll be hearing much more about in the very near future. Fired up from this pair of exciting presentations, the group brainstormed some possible next steps.

After lunch, we divided into four working groups, User Needs, Interoperability, Delivery, and Policy, to tackle some action items. I worked with the User Needs group where after a free-wheeling conversation on user behaviors, we buckled down and formulated plans for some usability testing on the “Get It Button.” We ended day one reporting back to the larger group, the work done by the four working groups. One very exciting report came from the newly formed Delivery group about a potential national pilot project called Library@Home, which could be libraries’ answer to Netflix.

Tomorrow we will hear from the Regional Director and a Project Leader from the Internet Archive about their plans for a new approach to resource sharing among small libraries and members of the public before planning for the future. There are some innovative and exciting plans in the works, and the Boston Regional Library System will be working closely with the Boston Library Consortium to make sure Boston libraries are involved.