Resource sharing has no shortage of charismatic thought leaders and visionaries. Sometimes, though, progress can feel painfully slow. When Adam Murray of OpenRS described the community as a “do-ocracy”, it struck a chord: show what works, and build on it together.
That fits the K-Int ethos. We can, however, spend so much time doing the work that we forget to show it.
So I’m delighted to share two interactive walkthroughs from Casey Henderson and Richard Mann, showing OpenRS Direct Consortial Borrowing (DCB) in action:
- An Alma patron borrowing an item supplied by a FOLIO library.
- A Koha library borrowing an item supplied by an Alma library.
These are focused views of everyday borrowing and lending, rather than comprehensive platform tours. They show what matters to library desk staff: how resource sharing works through the systems they use.
For a written guide to the first pairing, follow the Alma-to-FOLIO resource-sharing workflow.
Behind them sits a simple philosophy: the right tool for the job. OpenRS brings together DCB and interlibrary loan, connecting libraries across different systems without requiring everyone to adopt the same platform. ORS-Appliance extends participation to libraries without a supported direct integration, with staff-mediated steps where automation isn’t available, and connects that work to the wider ISO 18626 resource-sharing world.
There’s hard-won technology under the hood, shaped by developers and library staff working together. These walkthroughs make that collective effort visible.
More of these, please, Casey and Richard! I’d love to see this become a regular series, including more examples of DCB and ILL working together.
Explore OpenRS and get involved in the community.
Ian Ibbotson