This article provides a practitioner's guide to marketing user-initiated borrowing at the point of need. By reviewing interlibrary loan book requests and manually transferring them to an INN-Reach consortial system, Link+, the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries were able to successfully market the service, deliver materials faster, and save…

Whether a library's reference collection is large or small, it needs constant attention. Singer's book offers information and insight on best practices for reference collection management, no matter the size, and shows why managing without a plan is a recipe for clutter and confusion. In this very practical guide, reference librarians will learn:…

Macquarie University Library was concerned at the length of time that elapsed between placement of an interlibrary loan request to the satisfaction of that request. Taking advantage of improved statistical information available to them through membership of the CLIC Consortium, library staff investigated the reasons for delivery delay. This led to…

Nursing and library faculty face many information literacy challenges when graduate nursing programs migrate to online course delivery. The authors describe a collaborative model for providing cost-effective online library services to new graduate students in a three-university consortium. The embedded librarian service links a health sciences…

The Anatolian University Libraries Consortium (ANKOS) was created in 2001 with only a few members subscribed to nine e-journal collections and bibliographic databases. This Turkish library consortium had developed from one state and three private universities joining together for the purchase of two databases in 1999. Over time, the numbers of…

This article explores the historical foundations of the South Carolina Digital Library, a collaborative statewide program that ties together academic special collections and archives, public libraries, state government archives, and other cultural resource institutions in an effort to provide the state with a comprehensive database of online…

Do vendor reps provide librarians with the information they need in the way they need it? Do vendors feel they are communicating effectively with their librarian clients? A recent survey of North American and European academic librarians commissioned by Jim McGinty, vice chair of Cambridge Information Group, and carried out by consultants David…

The Carolina Consortium came into being for one purpose: to conclude deals that would allow the sharing of both the costs and the content of a large number of academic journals from three major publishers--Wiley, Springer, and Blackwell. In just a few months--and without any central authority, funding, or administrative overhead--librarians from…

Florida's Ask a Librarian service (http://www.askalibrarian.org) brings virtual reference to users at their moment of need via the Internet. Ask a Librarian is a growing service with 76 participating libraries including public, school, four-year, and community college libraries. The following article describes how Ask a Librarian was developed…

Thirty years ago most resource sharing took place between libraries, with a few formal organizations (library consortia) providing logistical support. Today there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of organizations around the world facilitating resource sharing. Automation has greatly accelerated the growth of resource sharing. As access to…

Although the current focus of library consortia has been their role as buying clubs, technology has opened up other important roles as well. One of these is a radical reassessment of physical resource sharing--increasing the ease, speed, popularity, and cost efficiency of the traditional interlibrary loan function. A case study of patron-initiated…

What is the impact of an academic library consortium on the perceptions of library services experienced by users of the member institutions' libraries? What is the impact of an academic library consortium on the perceptions of library services experienced by users of the member institutions libraries? In 2002 and 2003, OhioLINK (Ohio's consortium…

Discussion of role of school library media centers (SLMCs) in multitype library networks notes five basic factors that contribute to their exclusion from library networks: psychological, political and legal, funding, communication, and planning. Examples of programs attempting to reduce barriers to school participation in library networks are…

Broward Community College South and North Campus Libraries have successfully become partners with the Broward County Library System. Commencing in the early 1980s, the joint-use facilities were pioneers and are now models for other institutions across the state and nation that are planning similar projects. The fear of leaders involved with the…

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Library participated in the statewide conversion to a new integrated library system in the summer of 2002. Prior to the system's implementation, various local and statewide committees coordinated efforts to train their staffs so as to ensure a seamless transition. This case study analyzes, in…