[WLA-All] Winners Announced for Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Award - Press Release

[Brandie Baumann]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Brandie Baumann, BCR - bbaumann at bcr.org or 303.751.6277 x110

WINNERS ANNOUNCED FOR RETHINKING RESOURCE SHARING INNOVATION AWARD

AURORA, CO, June 11, 2008 - The Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Awards Committee has announced the winners for the 2008 Award. This year's recipients are the North Carolina Libraries for Virtual Education (NC LIVE) and the Information Delivery Services Project (IDS) in New York.

NC LIVE received the award for making more than 500 hours of licensed PBS videos available to its 198 members via streaming video files and significantly improving user access by eliminating the need to share physical copies of the material. 

The IDS was recognized for designing rapid access to more than seven million volumes for 140,000 students and 10,000 faculty members.  The project was developed by a team at SUNY Geneseo's Milne Library and currently serves 27 academic libraries in New York, both public and private.

Of the recipients, Anne K. Beaubien, chair of the 2008 Rethinking Resource Sharing Innovation Awards Committee said, "These are well-executed ideas that exemplify the principles of the Rethinking Resource Sharing initiative. I'm delighted that there are so many efforts building on resource sharing to improve access to information for users."

Each winner will receive a cash prize of $1,000.  The awards will be presented at the ALA RUSA STARS Rethinking Resource Sharing ALA Preconference, June 27, in Anaheim, California.  In addition, recipients have been invited to present at Rethinking Access to Information: Evolving Perspectives on Information Content Delivery, in Boston, August 5-7.  Funding for the Innovation Awards was provided by the Alliance of Library Service Networks.  Ongoing support for the Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative is provided by OCLC and BCR.

The Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative was started to advocate for a complete rethink of the way libraries conduct resource sharing in the context of the global Internet revolution. In order to showcase resource sharing innovation, the Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative created an award to encourage libraries and librarians to make changes in how they do resource sharing and improve service to users. More information is available on the Initiative's website at:  www.rethinkingresourcesharing.org

Brandie Baumann
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BCR
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