August 31, 2022
MOBIUS has announced that it will be implementing ReShare Returnables as its new resource sharing system, joining PALCI, ConnectNY, and the Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation who all have launched ReShare Returnables in recent months. The MOBIUS implementation will coincide with its launch of EBSCO FOLIO from EBSCO Information Services as its new library services platform. The MOBIUS migration, from Innovative’s INN-Reach and Sierra to ReShare Returnables and FOLIO, will begin in late 2022 with plans to be fully operational by the spring of 2024. Knowledge Integration will be leading the development of ReShare Returnables with MOBIUS.
Donna Bacon, Executive Director of MOBIUS, says that ReShare and FOLIO present an opportunity for MOBIUS members to move to open source resources with expert support. “Being part of an open-source community for our first library services platform is a significant move forward that will streamline processes, manage resources and leverage modern technologies,” Bacon noted. “We are eager to collaborate with the FOLIO and Project ReShare communities and hope to contribute to both projects’ future developments.”
Knowledge Integration will partner with MOBIUS to develop features in ReShare Returnables that support direct consortial borrowing. Ian Ibbotson of Knowledge Integration, technical architect for Project ReShare, is keen to build on the relationship to expand the functionality with ReShare and promote interoperability with FOLIO. “Being a small UK-based company with a solid commitment to developing open source solutions for libraries, we are excited by this partnership between Project ReShare, EBSCO, and MOBIUS,” Ibbotson said. “The leadership shown by MOBIUS in supporting the development of direct consortial borrowing functionality will benefit libraries worldwide and grow the wider resource-sharing capabilities of the project well beyond its traditional ILL roots.”
Project ReShare is a user-centered, community-owned resource sharing platform that will allow for the connection of disparate ILS platforms. MOBIUS has been an active, contributing member of the ReShare community since December of 2020. Adopting ReShare allows other libraries on disparate ILS systems to join MOBIUS. MOBIUS believes that ReShare offers more flexible opportunities to include a wider variety of platforms as the consortium continues to grow and evolve.
About MOBIUS
Since its founding in July 1998, MOBIUS has transformed library services for the citizens of Missouri. Formerly a part of the University of Missouri System, on July 1, 2010 MOBIUS became a Missouri not-for-profit corporation with 501 (C)(3) tax-exempt status. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of its members, the organization has grown from 50 founding charter members to 80 members which include 64 academic libraries,11 public libraries, 4 special libraries, and the Missouri State Library, serving more than 230 physical branches.
The consortium’s purpose is to share library materials, information, and services using accessible, cost effective methods. It is our goal to create equal access to materials and information for all of our users. Today, the MOBIUS Union Catalog has expanded to include more than 29 million items, serving users in Missouri and into Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas and Texas. A courier service delivers library materials to member libraries across Missouri and Iowa and connects us to libraries via the CLiC (Colorado) and TransAmigos courier networks.
About Project ReShare
The ReShare Community is a group of libraries, consortia, information organizations and developers, with both commercial and non-commercial interests, who came together in 2018 to create Project ReShare – a new and open approach to library resource sharing. The ReShare Community has a bold vision for building a user-centered, app-based, community-owned resource sharing platform for libraries to set a new standard for how we connect library patrons to the resources and information they require.
For more information, contact info@projectreshare.org.
To receive email updates from Project ReShare, please sign up for the Project ReShare news list at https://projectreshare.org/contact.