23NWILL - 2023 NWILL Opening Remarks & Keynote Presentation

0:00 Welcome
9:00 Keynote
1:18:45 Q&A

Opening Remarks by David Ketchum, NWILL Chairperson (University of Oregon, Director of Access Services)

Keynote by Shannon Pritting (Empire State University, Director of Library Services, Open and Digital Learning Assets)

NWILL 2023 opening remarks followed by Keynote presentation titled: Boundaries, Nostalgia, and Collaboration: Resource Sharing as a Framework

Resource sharing staff are dedicated to serving the needs of their users and collaborating with their network of colleagues across the world. But, we need to critically ask the question, “how far has the field of resource sharing progressed in the last 15 years?” Does a focus on technology and workflows leave resource sharing in a good place to see new strategic opportunities? What does the next 15 years look like for those in resource sharing? There are many paths to the provision of services to users in new and interesting ways through cross-institutional and consortial collaboration, but often departmental or institutional boundaries keep these innovations from moving forward. Resource sharing staff have extensive collaborative experience on a micro and macro level that few other departments do, and we’ll review how resource sharing can branch out to other opportunities to deliver new or different services. But, this will mean acknowledging that priorities may change and past foundations such as collections may no longer be universally essential. We’ll review what has dominated resource sharing in the past 15 years, such as technology migrations and consolidation, changing user preferences, increased automation, and financial constraints. The main framework that will be proposed is that resource sharing should no longer be a specialization in libraries, but a foundational approach across departments to maximize services. Without this change in approach, it is likely that resource sharing will become less relevant and be seen as a nostalgic service by many. Resource sharing staff and librarians need to be willing to cross boundaries, and be endorsed by their institutions to be the collaborative driver of innovation. We’ll look at how the development of a resource sharing framework can help libraries collaborate better on evolving needs such as accessibility, access cost containment, higher education affordability initiatives, and expansion of student and faculty services.