HERMES – Strengthening digital resource sharing during COVID and beyond

Abstract

HERMES is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. Hermes project aims at providing educational institutions high quality, fast and free access to knowledge by building capacity to implement and share a comprehensive vision and wide spread competencies on resource sharing accompanied by an open source system to support effective access to knowledge for all. The project promotes cooperation and partnership among 5 organizations from Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Lebanon, and Spain; a national research institution, the worldwide umbrella organization for libraries, and 3 universities. All partners participate in the planned training and dissemination activities and the realization of all outputs. Project Partners : CNR Bologna Research Area library (Italy) is active in the field of software development since many years, having implemented NILDE and ALPE projects, the most important resource sharing projects in Italy for the number of involved institutions (90 Universities and Public Research organisations) and users (870 libraries and their 80.000 users). It coordinates the whole project and leads the realization of the new software. University of Balamand (Lebanon) is a not-for-profit academic institution of higher education active in resource sharing on the National and International levels being part of Lebanese Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery Services (LIDS) consortium and represented in the IFLA Document Delivery and Resource Sharing standing committee. Its participation to the project is important because it brings the possibility to reach a vast number of potential beneficiaries: the Arabic speaking librarians and users. HERMES will translate in Arabic the training materials and, through specific dissemination activities, invite Arabic speaking librarians and library users to participate to training opportunities offered by the project not only in Lebanon but, being distance courses, potentially in all Arabic countries. University of Cantabria (Spain) cooperated with NILDE in order to ease the international interlibrary loan between Italian and Spanish libraries, and to spread the Resource Sharing Initiative. It brings to the project the experience in Inter Library Loan service being part of the national REBIUN ILL-DD-WG in guidelines of the ILL service, and having participated in NILDE survey on international ILL exchanges. University of Cantabria in particular takes care of the realization of monitoring and evaluation tools for training.MEF University (Turkey) has specific experience in management of digital resources, in fact the great majority of its resources are electronic. MEF brings to the project two aspects: a vision on how users can fully familiarize with how to access the digital resources, and an opportunity to involve Turkish libraries in the project activities. MEF University is responsible of the coordination of training activities foreseen in the project. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) is based in the Netherlands but it is the global organization representing all library types in over 150 countries including all EU. It brings to the project, a part from an enormous potential in dissemination, a considerable expertise in the development, evaluation and publication of standards and tools designed to work for the entire global library field from which HERMES will benefit in the production of all outputs. Moreover, the Document Delivery and Resource Sharing Section of IFLA brings specific expertise in the project topic: HERMES can count on the potential of IFLA both as a forum for e exchanging experience and in developing tools and guidance that can support colleagues globally. IFLA is responsible for coordinating the production of the publication and for the organization of HERMES final international conference. (Project Duration : From 1/5/2021 to 31/10/2022)

Avrupa Birliği Erasmus+ Programı tarafından ortak olarak finanse edilen HERMES projesi herkesin bilgiye etkin erişimini desteklemek için açık kaynak sistemi eşliğinde kapsamlı bir vizyon ve kaynak paylaşımı konusunda geniş kapsamlı yetkinlikleri uygulama ve paylaşma kapasitesini geliştirerek eğitim kurumlarının bilgiye yüksek kaliteli, hızlı ve ücretsiz erişimini sağlamayı amaçlamaktadır. HERMES Projesi, CNR Bologna Research Area library (İtalya), University of Balamand (Lübnan), University of Cantabria (İspanya), MEF University (Türkiye), International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). 5 kuruluşun ortak girişimi ile oluşturulmuştur.

(Proje Süresi : 1/5/2021'den 31/10/2022'ye kadar)