SHARES

SHARES Partner Agreement

All OCLC Research Library Partnership (RLP) institutions are invited to join the SHARES partnership.

• For a list of participating organizations, see Partners.
• For SHARES interlending, document supply, and on-site procedures, see Procedures.

Becoming a SHARES Partner

SHARES Partners are OCLC Research Library Partnership members who opt into the RLP's resource sharing consortium. There is no separate fee for participation. To become a SHARES Partner, please fill out the SHARES Partner Signup Form (see below). This should be completed by the person designated to serve as your institution's SHARES Liaison. A SHARES Partner Agreement will then be forwarded to the Liaison for the RLP institution's Partner Representative to sign.

Each participating institution has a designated SHARES Liaison who serves as the institution's official contact regarding local adherence to SHARES policies, votes to elect nominees to an executive group, and provides advice to the group regarding overall policy.

Policies and guidelines

Signing the SHARES Partner Agreement means you will follow SHARES Procedures, including:

• You and your staff are committed to providing SHARES services to partners' ILL-eligible patrons, including reciprocal onsite access. (See SHARES Procedures for exceptions.)
• You will identify a person to be your institution's principal contact with the SHARES partners and with the SHARES coordinator.
• Your SHARES contact will provide and keep current your institution's information for the SHARES Partner Contacts page.
• Your institution may be listed as a participant in OCLC RLP publicity about SHARES.
• You understand and agree to the SHARES pricing structure for filled ILL requests: $10 USD for all copies; $10 USD for returnables within a country, and $30 USD for returnables between continents. Lenders have the option of recouping shipping costs over $30 USD. (See SHARES Procedures for exceptions.)
• Your institution will follow SHARES ILL performance standards and procedures regarding turnaround times, loan periods, and SHARES on-site access guidelines, as listed in SHARES Procedures.
• Your staff with control over collections and library operations agree to work with your ILL staff to consider each SHARES loan or copy request case by case, for all types of material.
• You will make clear your library's policy about lending returnable items to SHARES partners in other countries and on other continents, in three places: on your completed agreement form, in the SHARES policy grid, and in the OCLC Policies Directory.
• You must use an ILL system that converses with OCLC's WorldShare Interlibrary Loan (WSILL) and that can utilize OCLC’s IFM (ILL Fee Management) service as the payment method, so that all SHARES partners can exchange requests and fully automate the crediting and debiting process for filled ILL transactions.
• Your library will contribute bibliographic records to WorldCat and work with OCLC to keep your holdings information as current as possible. (See SHARES Procedures for tips on keeping holdings up to date.)
• Significant changes to SHARES policies and guidelines require a SHARES Executive Group recommendation and extended community discussion that achieves a broad consensus.  In rare instances, SHARES Liaisons may be asked to vote.

Join SHARES

SHARES Partner Signup Form

If you have any questions about the SHARES Partner Agreement, please contact Dennis Massie, SHARES Senior Program Officer.