SHARES 2021

In 2021, the SHARES Executive Group focused on three key themes and one activity aimed at benefiting both the consortium and the broader resource sharing community. The topics included:

• Accessibility of ILL materials
• Building resource sharing skill sets
• Advocating for resource sharing
• Lending e-books

The Executive Group engaged with SHARES participants on each topic, beginning with Accessibility.

Leading up to this work, the Executive Group conducted a survey in December 2019 to gather insights from SHARES members on current practices, preferences, and aspirations related to accessible interlibrary loan materials. The survey results were presented in August 2020 during a virtual session of the OCLC Resource Conference Web series and served as the foundation for the group’s efforts in 2021.

Recognizing the complexity of accessibility—including Americans with Disabilities Act compliance—the Executive Group encouraged SHARES participants to collaborate with peers across resource sharing consortia to make universally accessible ILL materials a standard practice. 

Throughout 2021, the group contributed to this effort by: 

• Gathering and sharing information on current practices and available technology 
• Working to establish standards and best practices 
• Advocating for OCR’d ILL materials to become routine rather than the exception 

With widespread interest across the ILL community and ongoing discussions at conferences—including the 2019 and 2020 OCLC Resource Sharing Conferences and the 2019 BTAA conference—SHARES continued to support and advance the conversation on accessibility in resource sharing.  Outputs developed by the SHARES Executive Group and other SHARES volunteers included:

• A resource document for making library materials available in accessible formats (2022) 
• Suggested language on accessibility to be added ot the US Interlibrary Loan Code (2023)