National Library of Australia - Gateways>

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 51| June 2001


National Resource Sharing Working Group:
New Directions

Dr Toby Burrows

Dr Toby Burrows, Principal Librarian, Scholars’ Centre, University of Western Australia Library, has accepted the position of Chair of the National Resource Sharing Working Group. Toby has contributed to academic libraries in many roles, and has specialised in the development and management of research collections. His recent projects include a new model for resource discovery in manuscript collections: The Guide to Australian Literary Manuscripts.

The National Resource Sharing Working Group aims to ensure that a robust, reliable and cost-effective interlending system, built on cooperation and agreed service standards and policies, is in place to serve Australian libraries and their users. A major activity this year was the launch of the Australian Interlibrary Resource Sharing Code in January. The code formalises both the service levels and charges for a transparent and effective resource sharing environment.

2001 will be a period of great activity for the group—some of the issues to be addressed include:

Toby encourages all Australian libraries to adopt the new ILRS code to enable better resource sharing between Australian libraries. He sees the new code as providing an excellent basis for more effective collaboration and resource sharing in the Australian library community.

‘The nature of libraries is changing’, he says, ‘and this requires new models of cooperation. The National Resource Sharing Working Group is providing a framework for Australian libraries to lead the world in cooperative access to resources.’

A session at the Kinetica Annual Users Meeting will cover issues of resource sharing in the Australian environment, including an analysis of software for interlibrary loans. A presentation from Toby will be a key component of the session.
Roxanne Missingham

Above, right: Dr Toby Burrows, Chair of the National Resource Sharing Working Group

| Contents list for this issue of Gateways |

Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au

Gateways logo