OpenRS

Flexible, Standards-Based Resource Sharing

OpenRS provides an interoperable resource sharing solution for public and academic libraries and their consortia.

Supporting different library management and discovery platforms, OpenRS combines direct consortial borrowing (DCB) and interlibrary loan (ILL) to streamline workflows, expand access to collections, and facilitate collaboration within and across consortia. Additional digital lending and document delivery capabilities are in development.

Direct Consortial Borrowing (DCB)

OpenRS DCB enables seamless, unmediated borrowing and lending between participating libraries, automating requesting and fulfillment workflows to provide a consistent user experience.

Independent of any specific integrated library system (ILS), library services platform (LSP), or discovery solution, it supports resource sharing within and across consortia without requiring libraries to adopt a common technology platform.

For libraries using a direct ILS integration, OpenRS DCB talks directly with your ILS. In practical terms, this means your staff will use their standard circulation workflow inside the ILS, whether the request is from the library’s collection or the consortium’s collection. This creates a wide-area circulation model between the libraries in your consortium.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL)

OpenRS ILL is a FOLIO application supporting mediated interlibrary loan workflows for public and academic libraries.

The user can build the rota of supplying libraries by searching a union catalog or individual library catalogs. The ILL application communicates with supplying libraries via protocol messaging or email, and when using these methods, ILL can connect to your ILS to update circulation records. 

Digital lending is in development to offer users a platform that connects ILL to a document delivery service. Users can upload documents with connected copyright terms, and the system will create a link and send it to the borrowing library for approval and download. This will provide a full audit trail for the lending of digital materials.