STARS

Kerry Keegan, Editor

Letter from the Chair

Hello, fellow STARS!

ALA Midwinter came and went way too fast – it was good to see so many of you at the STARS all-committee meeting and the two ILL Discussion Groups! Our discussions were quite lively and we covered a number of wide-ranging topics such as consortial loan periods, patron privacy, optical-character-recognition (OCR) scans, using Kindles to fill ILL requests (thanks, Megan Gaffney!), new ILL software tools, changes in ILL product ownership, and more!

Meanwhile, STARS committees are hard at work on this year’s tasks. I encourage you to follow the progress of the Legislation and Licensing Committee as they draft recommendations for ILL-friendly license language, the work of the Vendor Relations Committee as they prepare a Vendor Bingo event for ALA Annual 2017, the work of the Standards and Guidelines Committee as they revise the “Guidelines for Resource-Sharing Response to Natural and Manmade Disasters,” the work of the Outreach and Promotion Committee as they coordinate a new STARS logo contest, and much more!

ALA Annual in Chicago will be here before you know it. Mark your calendars now for these signature STARS events!

• ILL Discussion Group on Saturday, June 24, from 10:30 – 11:30am
• “I am not a lawyer: providing copyright services in libraries” on Saturday, June 24, from 1:00 – 2:30pm
• Hot Topics Discussion Group on Saturday, June 24, from 4:30 – 5:30pm

Looking forward to seeing you all in June!
All the best,
Heidi Nance, Chair 2016-2017

Atlas Systems Mentoring Award Committee

The Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources Section (STARS) of ALA has begun its push to announce mentoring award winners. Keep tuned to hear about our upcoming recipients!

Amy Paulus, Chair

Codes, Guidelines, and Technical Standards Committee

The Codes, Guidelines, and Technical Standards Committee is working on the 7-year review of the Guidelines for Resource Sharing Response to Natural & Man-Made Disasters (http://www.ala.org/rusa/files/resources/guidelines/disasterguidelines.pdf). We have posted a call for comments on the current guidelines to key discussion lists with a deadline of mid-February. We hope to complete the review process and receive RUSA approval for the revised guidelines by the end of 2017.

Margaret Ellingson, Chair

Vendor Relations Committee

The Vendor Relations Committee has begun work on its Vendor Bingo program that will be debuted at ALA Annual 2017. It’ll be great fun, so make sure check in for STARS updates on ALAConnect or on our Facebook page. While you’re there, keep an eye out for announcements about the 2017 ALA Annual ILL Discussion Group.

Robin Moskal, Chair

Rethinking Resource Sharing Policies Committee

The Rethinking Resource Sharing Policies Committee has been hard at work, reworking and reviewing international standards at http://rethinkingresourcesharing.org. We’ve been expanding our horizons and recently hosted a webinar titled “Rethinking Resource Sharing around the World” for Libraries Australia, on January 23. Speaking of Australia, we would love to congratulate our new Australian members, Harvest Bible College and RMIT University Library!

We also have a new Italian member, so join us in saying, “Benvenuto a Università di Torino. Biblioteca di Scienze letterarie e filologiche!”

On the horizon, we’ll be reviewing the decade-old RRS Manifesto and make plans to consider a national standard for loan periods and OCR scanning.

Beth Posner, Chair

Research and Assessment Committee

The Research and Assessment Committee has completed assessments for all STARS-sponsored events, through ALA Annual 2016, and have posted results to ALAConnect. Midwinter 2017 assessments should be completed and posted by the end of March 2017. In the near future, we’ll begin to compile “meta reports,” which will consolidate data and feedback from all STARS sessions, after each ALA Midwinter Meeting and ALA Annual Conference.

David Ketchum, Chair

Hot Topics Discussion Group

Hot Topics at Midwinter 2017 was a success. Much thanks to Megan Gaffney for sharing her story and beginning the conversation about Kindle lending in ILL. We’re currently looking for ideas for Hot Topics at ALA Annual in Chicago and encourage folks to email ndethloff@uh.edu with potential topics, speakers, or nominations.

Nora Dethloff, Chair