Philadelphia – Dec 15, 2018 – The Open Library Foundation (OLF) welcomes Project ReShare to its growing portfolio of open source, library management software development communities. The OLF Board of Directors accepted the Community Charter for Project ReShare at its fall meeting.
Leading library, consortia and information organizations have come together to create Project ReShare – a new and open approach to library resource sharing systems. ReShare aims to inject new life into this space by developing an innovative, community-owned resource sharing platform.
“We are very excited about the membership of ReShare in OLF. When the members and leaders of this effort were meeting at WOLFCon to get organized, the energy and vision in the room was palpable. There was a sense among participants that the time for a shared community owned and led effort in resource sharing was overdue. Sharing our resources has always been a bedrock of library services. This new effort will allow us to share not just our resources but our time, talent and expertise into the development of a resource sharing platform for the twenty-first century.” – David Carlson, Dean of University Libraries at Texas A&M University and President of the OLF Board of Directors
ReShare’s open source software will be built on OLF’s innovative services platform with a modular architecture. Its “design-first” approach puts functional ergonomics and productivity as the project’s prime development focus. Organizations using the software can adapt the system to specific local needs and experiment with new service models and integrations. Libraries and consortia will have the option to install and host the platform, or select a preferred vendor for hosting and support. ReShare’s Apache 2.0 software license encourages libraries, developers, and vendors to innovate freely.
The greatest asset of Project ReShare is its robust community. Libraries, consortia, developers, vendors, and open information advocates are collaborating with a shared vision of strengthening the health of libraries’ resource sharing ecosystem. The community’s structure and governance minimize barriers hindering innovation in current solutions, and gives equal voice to all stakeholder groups. The ReShare Community has been initiated by the active contributions of our founding Partners represented in the project’s Steering Committee: Big Ten Academic Association, Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA), Index Data, Ivy Plus Libraries, Knowledge Integration, Mozilla Foundation, Open Library Environment (OLE), Pennsylvania Academic Library Consortium, Inc. (PALCI), and Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN).
About the Open Library Foundation
The Open Library Foundation (OLF) is a not-for-profit organization established to provide software development and collaborative infrastructure for open source project communities working to improve the effectiveness and impact of libraries. The OLF values open collaboration between libraries, library organizations, service providers, and vendors. The Open Library Foundation will ensure that the code is freely available under and Apache v2 license. For more information about the OLF, please visit https://openlibraryfoundation.org.
Media Contact
Michael Winkler – michael.winkler@openlibraryfoundation.org
Or visit https://projectreshare.org
