Page 68 - DLIS101_LIBRARY_AND_INFORMATION_SOCIETY

Unit 6: Library Extension Services

The National Library contributes to the development of national guidelines and codes for resource Notes
sharing. The National Library and the national library associations have produced a number of
guidelines and manuals related to resource sharing.

National Guidelines for Document Delivery

National resource sharing issues are addressed in co-operation with other government agencies and
national associations. The following documents address specific issues of national concern:
• Transporter Interlibrary Loan: Shipping Interlibrary Loan Materials from the U.S. to Canada.

6.1 Resource Sharing

Definition of resource sharing in the Libraries Regulation: “means making available to other libraries
the library resources owned by a board, the information contained in those resources and the staff
expertise required to locate and make available the information or the library resources”.
Resource sharing is the common use by two or more libraries of each other’s assets, whether they
are, equipment, staff knowledge and expertise, materials, facilities, and /or information resources.
Although the majority of resource sharing has been the sharing of bibliographic information and
document exchange through interlibrary loan, it also includes the staff, expertise, technology, and
services that enable this to happen. The public library network, whatever its configuration, is an
organized system of sharing resources based on a set of shared values and formalized operational
agreements.
Library cooperation, resource sharing and networking are used interchangeably as synonymous
terms for collaborative efforts of information exchange among libraries.
Resource sharing is not a new concept in the field of libraries. The concept that goes by the term
‘library co-operation’ has been in use all along among those who had been working in libraries or
had anything to do with the development of libraries. The term, however has been replaced by a
new coinage—‘Resource Sharing’—which sounds more attractive and makes better sense in this
age of inflation and budgetary reduction. Thus resource sharing in libraries has become a necessity,
and has gained worldwide acceptance.

6.1.1 Objectives of Resource Sharing

The objectives of resource sharing is to maximize the availability of material and services and to
minimize expenses. In other words, the principle behind resource sharing has been the availability
of maximum service at the minimum cost or the maximum service at the same cost.

The objectives of resource sharing are to create an environment in which libraries can
offer better services and more materials for the same cost.
It aims to make the resources of one library available to users of other library and vice-versa. The
main objectives, therefore, are:
• increase availability of resources
• extend the accessibility of resources
• diminish cost, and
• promote full utilization of resources

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