The next meeting of the ReShare Community is October 19, 2023, 11:00-12:30 EST. Join us for a presentation of the roadmap, a software demo, and an update on new initiatives, like controlled digital lending (CDL) and the development work being supported by Minitex.
Registration is now open.
BOSTON, MA – October 12, 2023 – Project ReShare has selected the Boston Library Consortium (BLC), a formidable coalition of libraries in the northeast US, as its new fiscal sponsor. The BLC Board of Directors and the Project ReShare Steering Committee agreed that the partnership would be mutually beneficial, serving an integral administrative role within the ReShare Community and furthering BLC’s strategic priorities.
Project ReShare sets the standard for how libraries collaborate, share resources, and connect people to information. ReShare focuses on the development of open source, user-centered, standards-based, community-driven, and community-owned library resource sharing technologies and tools. Development of ReShare products is based on principles of co-governance of a shared technology roadmap.
BLC is committed to empowering libraries by fostering the sharing of knowledge, infrastructure, and resources at scale. Through its innovative fiscal sponsorship program, BLC provides essential infrastructure and services to projects that align with its charitable objectives, enabling them to concentrate on their missions and resource development, rather than on administrative operations.
Established in 2018 by a visionary group of libraries, consortia, information organizations, and developers, Project ReShare is entering a new phase of maturity, one focused on shoring up the development roadmap, governance, communication, and administration. “This is the ideal time to partner with the Boston Library Consortium on fiscal sponsorship,” said Lisa Croucher, Executive Director of TRLN and chair of the ReShare Steering Committee. “BLC has demonstrated its commitment to the values of Project ReShare and brings the infrastructure and skills that the Project needs now, on the precipice of expansion.”
Charlie Barlow, Executive Director of BLC and a member of the ReShare Steering Committee, agreed. “BLC has already demonstrated our commitment to Project ReShare through our investment in development of Controlled Digital Lending functionalities in ReShare Returnables,” he said. “BLC, in partnership with the ReShare Steering Committee and its Treasurer, will provide thorough and comprehensive oversight of ReShare finances.”
Both ReShare and BLC recognize the importance of collaboration, transparency, and innovation in the evolving landscape of library resource sharing. The combined strengths of the two organizations enhance the reach and impact of shared resources and shape the future of knowledge dissemination and access. This partnership underscores the shared belief that we can overcome challenges and redefine the boundaries of what libraries can achieve.
About Project ReShare
The ReShare Community is a group of libraries, consortia, information organizations, and developers who came together in 2018 to create Project ReShare – an open approach to library resource sharing systems. The ReShare Community has a bold vision for building a user-centered, app-based, community-owned resource sharing platform for libraries. ReShare members are setting a new standard for connecting library patrons to the resources and information they seek.
About BLC
Boston Library Consortium empowers a coalition of libraries in the northeastern United States to share knowledge, infrastructure, and resources at scale.
Founded in 1970, BLC’s strength lies in its diverse membership network of public and private universities, liberal arts colleges, state libraries, public libraries, and special libraries united by a commitment to champion innovation through collaboration. For more information, visit blc.org.
Contacts:
Lisa Croucher
Executive Director, Triangle Research Libraries Network
Chair, ReShare Steering Committee
lisa@trln.org
Charlie Barlow
Executive Director, Boston Library Consortium
Secretary, ReShare Steering Committee
cbarlow@blc.org
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The ReShare Steering Committee has drafted vison, mission, and values statements for Community review. We invite feedback on these provisional statements through Friday, October 20, 2023, via this form.
Below are the drafts for review by the ReShare Community.
To serve as libraries’ competitive advantage in developing the most compelling innovation and agency in support of collections and resource sharing, while maintaining an inclusive and sustainable ecosystem that is fully accountable to its community of co-investors.
To set the standard for how libraries collaborate, partner, share resources and connect patrons to the information they require by developing user-centered, standards-based, community-driven, and community-owned library resource sharing technologies and tools.
Details of each of the five values listed below, including its definition and how it will be upheld and promoted, are available at this values overview document.
ReShare Community members are invited to the Community Meeting on Thursday, September 14, 2023, 12:00-1:30 EST. The Steering Committee will be sharing important information about the project, including membership updates, planned implementations, finances, and proposed refinements of our foundational vision. Register for the meeting via this Zoom registration link.
ReShare has grown substantially since it was first established in 2018, expanding from its initial 13 member organizations with a shared mission to create an open source, community-owned resource sharing platform, to having more than thirty member organizations by early 2023, offering a fully operational system. Four leading consortia – PALCI, ConnectNY, Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation, and TRLN – are actively using the ReShare platform, with CAVAL and Minitex in the process of implementing. The bulk of the initial software development work was provided by Knowledge Integration and Index Data, as well as Lehigh University Libraries. Development of ReShare’s controlled digital lending (CDL) functionality is also well-underway, in partnership with the Boston Library Consortium.
In Spring 2023, the ReShare Steering Committee recognized the need for a strategic planning retreat, given the meteoric growth of the community and increasing interest in developing a wide range of tools to address multiple resource sharing use cases. Questions around ReShare’s roadmap, sustainability, and development decisions were also growing as the potential scope of the project expanded.
The two-day intensive planning retreat was designed with the help of consultant and facilitator Dr. Deb Mashek. The retreat’s goals were to characterize the complexity of ReShare’s work, articulate learnings to date, and plan for the future in order to sustain the continuous and on-going development of the community.
Perhaps the most complex issues the Steering Committee grappled with during the retreat were 1) the recognition that two possibly competing platforms had emerged within the community with implications and risk to ReShare’s overall sustainability, and 2) a lack of consensus with respect to the meaning and implementation of “community ownership” in the context of ReShare product development. Central to this conversation were issues of sustainability and a focus on the ReShare Code of Conduct’s requirement that participants “not replace community infrastructure; instead, improve it.”
Pursuant to those retreat discussions, the Steering Committee reasserted that the ReShare software development roadmap, including the prioritization and application of any centralized, community funds or resources, must be owned and directed by ReShare’s membership.
On the final day of the retreat, the Steering Committee voted:
At the retreat’s conclusion, members of the Steering Committee expressed a desire that ReShare’s community ownership processes be inclusive and applicable to all members, and that the features and functionality represented in DCB development efforts be integrated into ReShare’s platform and community ownership processes in the future.
Following the retreat, a number of ReShare members – namely EBSCO, Knowledge Integration, MOBIUS, MCLS, and Marmot – opted to depart from the ReShare community to support DCB development efforts external to ReShare with a distinct and separate set of business needs and expectations for community governance and process.
The ReShare Steering Committee’s decisions about the application of its brand name reflected careful consideration of project sustainability and scoping, keeping in mind the initiative’s core values of trust, transparency, and community ownership. While the retreat outcomes caused disruption that the Steering Committee is now addressing, the past few weeks have sharpened the Committee’s focus on service to library and consortia-articulated use cases, needs, and community expectations. Steering Committee members are working diligently on preserving the integrity of ReShare’s shared community development vision, and providing opportunities for effective future collaboration with external partners, including the newly separated DCB initiative.
Also following the retreat, and with the impending departure from the community of the organization that serves as the project’s fiscal agent, the Steering Committee began expediting the transition of the project’s financial management with a focus on transparency. The next Community Meeting will include a detailed financial report.
The ReShare Steering Committee will meet again on August 25, 2023 at the University of Chicago. The priorities for this meeting are to:
The Steering Committee has been energized by the opportunity to revisit and recommit to our initial vision. We have scheduled a community meeting for Thursday, September 14, 12:00-1:30 pm EST, via Zoom. Community members will be receiving a separate calendar invite for this meeting. In preparation for that meeting, we invite all members to share ideas and questions via this form. The community meeting will be an opportunity to discuss form submissions and to provide updates on product roadmapping. The meeting will be open to all ReShare community members.
Sent on behalf of voting members of the ReShare Steering Committee:
Charlie Barlow, Ginny Boyer, Kristin Calvert, Lisa Croucher, Sebastian Hammer, David Larsen, Boaz Nadav Manes, Julia Proctor, Zheng Ye (Lan) Yang
NOTES:
DCB fundamentally differs from other forms of ILL, lending directly to a patron at another institution, rather than to a borrowing/requesting library. To support DCB, ReShare’s underlying platform required significant modifications, and ultimately, Knowledge Integration, with funding from EBSCO, decided to pursue DCB functionality as a wholly separate software stack, with the intention to brand the product as “ReShare DCB.”
Because EBSCO and Knowledge Integration built DCB functionality via a competitive RFP process without direct input from ReShare’s Steering Committee or the wider community, DCB was not incorporated into the ReShare roadmap or evaluated under established processes to assess new functional requirements. The DCB platform, as it was developed for MOBIUS, is independent from ReShare’s existing code base.
UPDATE, 9/21/23: The original version of this news item has been updated to remove 1) a statement regarding fiscal agency and 2) the statement that the name of the DCB platform had not yet been determined as of original publication date.
UPDATE, 8/25/23: The original version of this news item has been updated to remove the statement that the DCB platform is “expected to be tied to EBSCO’s proprietary discovery platform, Locate.”
We are pleased to open up our regular quarterly ReShare community meeting to anyone interested in Project ReShare on March 20th at 12pm ET.
During this call, we’ll describe the development progress made by the community to-date, share news of current implementations, and give insight into future development directions.
We invite you to join us, learn about ReShare, and discuss!
When: Mar 20, 2023 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pduGqpzsqGNa-7XE-IPDF5pcGSXNC072Y
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
The Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation (IPLC) recently announced their intention to implement ReShare Returnables in Summer 2022. IPLC also intends to become a member of the ReShare Community.
IPLC writes “The new software will create more efficient staff workflows, eliminating some of the time and complicated steps needed to deliver items to patrons.”
December 22, 2021
Project ReShare closes out the year by welcoming the Boston Library Consortium (BLC) to the ReShare Community. In addition to contributing leadership and engagement to the Project, BLC will be making a significant financial contribution. Founded in 1970, the BLC is an academic library consortium serving 21 public and private universities, liberal arts colleges, state and special research libraries in the northeastern United States.
The BLC’s collective collection has been a cornerstone throughout its history, and the consortium has always sought creative ways to leverage the collection for the benefit of member institutions. With the transformative opportunity of controlled digital lending (CDL), BLC is once again seeking an opportunity to make resource sharing more valuable and effective for its members.
BLC’s recent efforts to develop a path forward for consortial controlled digital lending (CDL) have illuminated the significant need for alternative resource sharing technologies to those currently available from vendors, in particular the need for community-led and community-governed alternatives such as Project ReShare. “The current library technology market has left libraries to cobble together solutions that meet local needs that fail to truly capitalize on the transformative potential that CDL offers,” said Charlie Barlow, BLC’s executive director. “The possibilities for an interoperable solution developed collaboratively by and for libraries and consortia hold great promise.”
The initial $100,000 financial commitment from the BLC is intended to accelerate the development path for CDL functionality within the ReShare client.
For Dorothy Meaney, president of the BLC and director of the Tisch Library at Tufts University, joining Project ReShare offers the BLC the opportunity to magnify its impact by collaborating with other libraries to collectively shape the future of both CDL and resource sharing more broadly. “Our goals for resource sharing align with those of other libraries and consortia,” said Meaney. “Through Project ReShare we see the chance to contribute our expertise and leadership in this space, for the long-term benefit of libraries.”
The BLC’s CDL Steering Committee, which is guiding the consortium’s implementation of CDL, is prepared to work directly with Project ReShare community members and developers on the development of CDL functionality. As a result of the work that the BLC has done thus far, coupled with its previous discussions with other Project ReShare members and staff from Index Data, the consortium has a great deal of expertise and vision for CDL, and how this can manifest in practical, impactful solutions for libraries and consortia.
Tim McGeary, chair of the Project ReShare Steering Committee, praised BLC’s investment in Project ReShare. “We recognize that such a large financial commitment isn’t possible for everyone, but we hope BLC’s investment will serve as a model for other potential members,” McGeary noted. “Interest in Project ReShare is increasing rapidly, and the financial investments are crucial to our being able to meet the development expectations of the community.”
The decision to join Project ReShare was approved unanimously by the BLC Board of Directors.
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.
About the Boston Library Consortium
Founded in 1970, the Boston Library Consortium (BLC) is an academic library consortium serving public and private universities, liberal arts colleges, state and special research libraries in the northeastern United States. The BLC members collaborate to deliver innovative and cost-effective sharing of print and digital content, professional development initiatives, and projects across a wide range of library practice areas. For more information, visit blc.org.
While many library staffers are already using ReShare everyday, they may not know that the project has been working to create a comprehensive documentation hub.
The ReShare documentation wiki features detailed descriptions of core software features, such as request states, processing actions, and external integrations. It also includes workflow guides designed by librarians that bring together groups of functions commonly used together.
You can find a link to the documentation wiki at https://projectreshare.org or access it directly at https://openlibraryenvironment.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/PR.
In the coming months, ReShare will continue to expand this documentation with the help of the project community. If you are interested in helping to support the documentation effort, please contact us at info@projectreshare.org.
The Project ReShare Steering Committee welcomes its three newest members after our latest round of elections for at-large members. The newly elected members are Kristen Calvert (Western Carolina University), Pamela Jones (ConnectNY), and Zheng Ye (Lan) Yang (Texas A&M).
Kristen Calvert is currently the Department Head for Discovery and Technology Services at Western Carolina University. For the past 10 years, Kristen has worked with e-resources, collections, technology, and resource sharing. Kristen has been an active member of the UNC Shared ILS task force and serve on the Consortium of Shared UNC Print steering committee. As the past Content Organization and Management Department Head, Kristen was responsible for WCU’s ILL unit and migrated WCU from ILLiad to Tipasa in 2018. Kristen’s new responsibilities include Project Management for technology projects, including our migration to a new content management system for digital collections.
Pamela Jones is the Executive Director of ConnectNY, a consortium of independent academic institutions in New York State. Pam has over 37 years of experience in public, academic, and special libraries in addition to her work with ConnectNY. Pam currently serves on the CC-PLUS Steering Committee, the Partnership for Shared Book Collections Operations Committee, the Empire Library Delivery Advisory Committee, and the Empire Archival Discovery Cooperative Advisory Committee. She is an experienced editor, writer, presenter, communicator, and consultant, as well as an avid gardener.
Zheng Ye (Lan) Yang is the Director of Document Delivery Services at Texas A&M University Libraries. She was responsible for planning and implementing the popular Get It service, and has developed innovative and responsive services for faculty and students that have become models for other institutions worldwide. Because of her pioneering work, she is frequently consulted by peer institutions and invited to give presentations across the nation about interlibrary loan/document delivery services. As the interim Associate Dean for Document Delivery/Interlibrary Services, Collection Development, Electronic Resources, Acquisition, Cataloging, and Stacks Maintenance, she worked with collections and technical services to coordinate alignment of library services with current campus research and teaching needs. She is an advocate for the resource evaluation, delivery and discovery processes that connect the TAMU community members to information resources.
