Nominations Sought for 2016 Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Award
April 10, 2016
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(via Margaret W. Ellingson, Emory University)
The Rethinking Resource Sharing (RRS) Innovation Award recognizes and honors an individual or institution for changes it has made to improve users’ access to information, through resource sharing in its library, consortium, state, province, or country. The purpose of the award is to showcase innovation in resource sharing and to encourage other librarians and libraries to make changes in their resource sharing operations, to improve service to library users. RRS looks for efforts in which people have taken the initiative to address a need on their own, rather than waiting for others to provide solutions for resource-sharing challenges.
The 2015 Innovation Award winners were Texas Tech University, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA), for collaboratively developing Occam’s Reader, the first library-developed system to enable interlibrary lending of electronic books. Click here to see the 2015 winning nomination in detail. The Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Award usually consists of a cash award and a citation honoring the winning nominee(s). We are currently finalizing funding for the 2016 cash award and expect to announce the sponsor(s) and amount(s) in the near future.
Eligibility:
Individuals, library institutions, and/or consortia may be nominated for the award. Individual nominees must have been employed in a library (anywhere in the world) and have held some responsibility for their institution’s resource-sharing services at the time the innovation was implemented. Innovations must have gone live (been made available to library users), at least as a pilot or a trial, since January, 2013.
Application process:
Self-nominations–as well as nominations for other individuals, institutions or consortia–are accepted. Nominations should consist of a clear description of the new service, or change in service, that has improved resource-sharing for library users in your institution, consortium, etc. Please be sure to include the following information:
- Describe the new service or changes made to an existing service.
- How has it improved users’ access to information, or otherwise improved resource-sharing services?
- How long has this innovation been implemented (pilot or trial implementations OK as long as service is available to a sizable group of library users)?
- How did your library/consortia decide that a change was needed in this area?
- How did you overcome barriers to implementing this service?
- Provide statistics or other indicators of the positive impact of your innovation
- Describe briefly the library or consortium in which this resource sharing idea is in place (e.g. size of institution, number of requests processed and filled, etc.)
- Describe how your user-centered service relates to one or more of the seven principles of the Rethinking Resource Sharing Manifesto
- Comment on the likelihood that this change will be a permanent one. What steps are you taking to insure that the improvement in service will continue?
- Comment on ways that other institutions might be able to replicate your success or otherwise benefit from your service innovation
Selection:
The Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Award Committee will evaluate nominations based on the contribution they make to a user-focused service that has improved resource sharing. Factors considered in selecting the award winner(s):
- Impact on users
- Scalability
- Sustainability
- Ability for other libraries/consortia to replicate or benefit from the innovation
- Initiative and risk-taking
Deadline:
The deadline for applications is Friday, April 15, 2016. Send nominations and/or questions to Margaret Ellingson, chair of the Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Award Committee, at margaret.ellingson@emory.edu (preferred) or to:
Margaret Ellingson
Head of Interlibrary Loan & Course Reserves
Woodruff Main Library
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322 USA
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