Trends in Resource Sharing: More than Just Numbers

Mary Jackson presented on emerging trends in resource sharing at the NELINET 27th Annual Resource Sharing Meeting. She summarized 13 trends, including user-initiated borrowing becoming more common and replacing mediated interlibrary loan, the goal of resource sharing becoming as seamless and convenient for users as popular commercial services, trusting users more with library materials, delivering materials directly to users, and rethinking resource sharing initiatives to make them more global and user-centric. She argued that while numbers of transactions are still important, the focus of resource sharing needs to be on improving the user experience.