The Present (July 2024) & Future – The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative (RRSI) will be restarting during the fall 2024 following an extended hiatus during the pandemic. Keep an eye on this website for more information. Contact Lars Leon, Univ. of Kansas Libraries, lleon@ku.edu if you are interested in helping with any aspect of our restart.
Historical
The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative is an ad hoc group that advocates for a complete rethink of the way libraries conduct resource sharing in the context of the global internet revolution and all of the developments that have arisen from that.
The initiative started in the U.S. in 2005 with a white paper written by a group of librarians, product vendors and library technology specialists. While working on revising resource sharing technical standards, they began to feel as though they were trying to improve a protocol that was becoming increasingly obsolete. It was rather like refining the typewriter protocol when the world had already moved on to the computer. And more importantly, resource sharing practices and policies continued to be library-centric while the rest of the world had already moved on to being consumer-centric.
Thus, the group felt it was time to wipe the slate completely clean and start over with some new concepts. A charter was written and a revolution born!
The participants in the Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative hope that you will join us in advocating for a revolution in the way libraries conduct resource sharing. The initiative enjoys a joint custody arrangement including partnerships among a number of organizations.
Charter
Sponsors
The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative enjoys a joint custody arrangement including partnerships among a number of organizations as described in the RRS Charter and Committees List. (Fall 2024 Update – we will be reviewing these partnerships with others).