VIVA, The Virtual Library of Virginia consortium, is recognized for its
Whole E-Book Interlibrary Lending Initiative
CHICAGO, June 24, 2017 —The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative has announced that the winner of the 2017 Innovation Award is VIVA, The Virtual Library of Virginia consortium, for its whole e-book interlibrary lending initiative. The consortium was recognized for its innovative contribution to resource sharing at the American Library Association’s 2017 Annual Conference in Chicago. Carrie Cooper, Dean of University Libraries at the College of William and Mary, accepted the award on behalf of the VIVA consortium.
The Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Award comes with a $500 stipend and honors individuals and/or institutions for improving access to information through resource sharing in their library, consortium, state and/or country. The purpose of the award is to showcase innovation in resource sharing and to encourage other librarians and libraries to make changes in their resource sharing operations to improve information delivery to library users.
VIVA is a consortium of the 72 non-profit academic libraries within the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its members include the 39 public colleges and universities, 32 non-profit independent colleges and universities, and the Library of Virginia. The consortium was founded in 1994, in large part to enable greater and more efficient resource sharing among its member libraries. In VIVA’s 20-plus year history, over 2 million books, journal articles and other items have been shared among its libraries.
The 2017 Innovation Award recognizes VIVA for embodying the principles of the Rethinking Resource Sharing Manifesto in its whole e-book interlibrary lending initiative, in particular the principle that “Library users shall be given appropriate options for delivery format, method of delivery, and fulfillment type.” As VIVA Director Anne Osterman states in her letter of nomination, “There is no question that receiving the whole e-book in a robust PDF format is a better experience for library borrowers than receiving only a chapter, an image-only version that does not allow text searching, or nothing at all.” Osterman further explains that “this is a permanent change to VIVA’s resource sharing practices . . . and it has given VIVA even greater momentum in advocating for these rights in all future e-book contracts. We have heard from many libraries and consortia that plan to advocate with renewed energy for the right to lend whole e-books, and we hope that this is a turning point for resource sharing of e-books.”
Funding for the 2017 Innovation Award is generously provided by Atlas Systems, developers of software solutions for libraries, including ILLiad for managing interlibrary loan and document delivery services, Ares for course reserves, and Aeon for special collections and archives.
The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative is an international 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 related developments.
CONTACT:
Margaret Ellingson
404-727-6893
margaret.ellingson@emory.edu