The UWM Libraries are one of two recipients of the 2018 Rethinking Resource Sharing (RSS) Innovation Award for the automation of resource sharing within the Wisconsin Area Research Center (ARC) Network.
The Libraries received the award and a $250 check, courtesy of Atlas Systems, on June 24 at the American Library Association’s annual conference in New Orleans.
The Libraries–which serve as one of 13 ARCs in a unique inter-archives loan program of the Wisconsin Historical Society and the University of Wisconsin System–developed an automated, user-initiated process for archival lending from traditionally non-circulating collections (archives, special libraries, etc.).
Previously, checking out and returning materials from these libraries, and maintaining statistics on the lending, was done manually.
Staff who worked on the project were Aaron Dobbs, Michael Doylen, Abigail Nye, Mitchell Scott, and Joe Tomich.
The RSS Innovation Award recognizes and honors an individual or institution for changes they have made to improve users’ access to information through resource sharing in their library, consortium, state, province or country.
The purpose of the award is to showcase innovation in resource sharing around the world 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 RSS Initiative is an international ad hoc group that advocates for a complete rethink of the way libraries conduct resource sharing in the context of the global internet revolution and related developments.