The world of archives and special collections has traditionally been what those both inside and outside the field would call “isolated.” The description, though commonly apt, is not intentional. Few archivists want anything more than increased access to, and greater use of, their collections. With this in mind, changes in resource sharing and the development of sophisticated tools and prescient systems and practices may offer far more to the archivist than meets the eye.

Toward that end, OCLC and Lyrasis are teaming to bring together resource sharing practitioners, systems and policy developers, archivists and librarians to share information, tackle questions and challenges, and initiate a broader discussion about access, dissemination, and cooperation. They will hold a FREE, one day conference May 17 at Mercer University in Macon.

Topics will include WorldShare (inheritor of Worldcat), metadata for cataloging, systems and tools, institutional repositories, statistics and copyright. Speakers from OCLC, Lyrasis, Atlas Systems, the Digital library of Georgia, among others will lead the discussion. Though initiated by the speakers, the discussion is meant to be as much of an open forum as possible.

The conference is designed for anyone with an interest in resource sharing, institutional partnership, or bringing greater access and visibility to their collections. This is an opportunity for archivists, librarians, tools and policy makers remove some barriers to communication, and begin to envision how we all may be able work together to meet the ever-growing demands of digital materials, and needs of the researchers who use them.

A link to the registration page may be found here:
https://www.lyrasis.org/pages/eventdetail.aspx?eid=22c594f8-cf90-e211-8d82-002219586f0d

And those interested may contact: russell.palmer@lyrasis.org.