STARS

Kerry Keegan, Editor

Message from the Chair

My Fellow STARS,

The ALA Midwinter Meeting has come and gone and I hope you were able to join us in Boston for some of the fun and excitement. Our members were busy and highlights include two very interesting panel discussions hosted by STARS: at the ILL Discussion Group we had a thoughtful assessment of the 2005 Task Force on Qualifications for Interlibrary Loan Operations Management and the Hot Topics Discussion Group featured a presentation about shared print collections in Maine.

Behind the scenes, STARS and RUSA board members worked tirelessly to secure approval of the revised Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States, shepherding the proposal through THREE separate votes in just 24 hours! Many thanks, again, to Brian Miller and the Codes, Guidelines, and Technical Standards Committee for seeing this monumental task through to completion.

Now, our attention turns to the Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida – just four short months away! In addition to the ILL Discussion Group and Hot Topics, RUSA STARS will be hosting several events during Annual:

  • A Spoonful of Data-Driven Sugar: Using Big Business Research to Improve Customer Satisfaction in Easy-to-Implement, Single-Serving Packets. A pre-conference workshop on Friday June 24, from 8am-12noon
  • Not Your Average Consortia. A panel presentation co-sponsored by RUSA STARS and LLAMA-SASS on Sunday June 26, from 10:30-11:30am
  • Resource Sharing in Tomorrowland: A Panel Discussion about the Future of Interlibrary Loan on Sunday June 26, from 1-2:30pm

Also, mark your calendars for the STARS Social on Friday June 24, from 7:30-10pm (Location: TBA).

I hope to see you all in June!

Your Chair,

Tom Bruno
Chair 2015-2016

Codes, Guidelines, and Technical Standards Committee
The RUSA Board of Directors approved the revised Interlibrary Loan Code for the United States at ALA Midwinter and it was mounted, with the new Explanatory Supplement and ALA ILL Request Form, on RUSA’s website.  On February 15, 2016, the Codes Committee publicly announced the updated documents on a variety of listservs and on Facebook. Publication in RUSQ is expected to appear in the summer of 2016.

The Codes, Guidelines, and Technical Standards Committee is now planning additional publicity for the new documents. There will be presentations at the ILLiad International Conference in Virginia Beach, in March 2016, and at the Great Lakes Resource Sharing Conference in Indiana, in June 2016.  The Committee is tentatively working on presentations for GWLA’s annual conference and for ACRL New England, as well. Committee members Nora Dethloff and Tina Baich will be working on an article for The Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery, & Electronic Reserves. The committee is also exploring the possibility of recording a live webinar with OCLC, this summer, which will be free to all ILL practitioners.

Committee chair Brian Miller is also pursuing a presentation opportunity for delegates to the IFLA Conference in Columbus, Ohio, this summer.

Brian Miller
Chair

STARS Education & Training Committee
Over the summer of 2015, ShareILL.org migrated to a new platform that is hosted by DreamHost. Linda Frederiksen, Jake Kubrin, and Kristen Palmiere transferred information from the former platform to the new one and the new ShareILL.org was announced on listservs in October 2015. Thank you to all the STARS committees who are currently updating sections of the new site. All users of the site are encouraged to submit any updates or suggestions for new pages to ShareILL4All@gmail.com.

On January 8th, 2016, the 9th annual Everything You Always Wanted to Know about ILL workshop took place at the Boston Public Library. Thank you to the Boston Public Library, OCLC, and Atlas Systems for sponsoring the event, and special thanks to Megan Gaffney, Karen Janke, Cindy Kristof, and Collette Mak for their excellent presentations. The event was well-attended and well-received. Planning for next year’s workshop in Atlanta is underway.

Kristen Palmiere
Chair

STARS Rethinking Resource Sharing Committee
The live link to the STAR Checklist (Version 2) of best practices in interlibrary loan/library resource sharing is now available at http://rethinkingresourcesharing.org/star-checklist-2!

Please review these checklist items and join our growing list of STAR Libraries. Together, we can start valuable discussions about library practices and keep rethinking resource sharing to even better serve users.

Thank you to Broward County Public Library, The Frick Art Reference Library of The Frick Collection, and Kansas City Public Library, who are our first participants!

Beth Posner
Chair

STARS Nominations Committee
The STARS Nominations Committee has just confirmed the final slate of candidates for the upcoming ALA elections. The 2016 elections will open on March 15 and close on April 22.  Results will be announced on April 29, 2016.  Eligible members will be emailed their voting credentials between March 15 and March 18, 2016.  Everyone should remember to vote!

Nora Dethloff
Chair

LLAMA SASS / RUSA STARS Consortial Borrowing Joint Committee
The Joint Consortial Borrowing Committee has been hard at work planning our program for ALA Annual 2016. Please make sure to join us for:
Not Your Average Consortia
Sunday 10:30 -11:30 am

Description: As library partnerships and collaborations are needed more than ever, library consortias are being relied upon more as resources and tools in a library’s future. This presentation will focus on what years of consortial development and participation has taught us. The panelist provide decades of experience in consortial partnerships and will be able to touch upon the “best of” practices in these partnerships. They will also guide a discussion on future developments and opportunities for all consortial cooperation.

We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Heather Weltin
Co-Chair