About

// Sharing Resource Sharing Resources //

Shared Sphere exists as a love letter to the resource sharing community.

I am a relatively new resource sharing practitioner. About halfway through my first year in the field, I proposed a presentation on my experience as a newcomer. The proposal was accepted, and I presented it around my one-year anniversary. I discussed the learning curve and how many facets of resource sharing are not covered in LIS graduate programs. This seemed to resonate with attendees because, after the presentation, many colleagues reached out via email asking for a bibliography of resources and suggestions on how to train new practitioners and librarians. (I was deeply unqualified to provide this information, so I hope I was able to help in some capacity!) Some colleagues also suggested that I write a paper about my experience as an active LIS student who spent time outside of school studying resource sharing.

A few months after that presentation, two colleagues brought to my attention that the Journal of Library Resource Sharing was planning a special issue on library resource sharing and library master’s programs. I decided to submit a paper to the issue about my experience as both a new LIS graduate student and a resource sharing practitioner. Ultimately, I argued for a more intentional inclusion of resource sharing topics within LIS curricula and explored the role of resource sharing in the library ecosystem. In doing so, I was not suggesting that a Master of Library & Information Science should be required to work in resource sharing. Rather, I was encouraging a more inclusive LIS discourse – one that positions resource sharing as an active and central library function.

That paper prompted me to envision a central location for all open access and freely available resource sharing materials online. (Shared Sphere also includes references to materials that can be accessed via interlibrary loan, such as journal articles and books.) I hoped to create a free, non-member website that would have helped me in my earliest days as a practitioner. This idea seemed even more relevant in today’s library ecosystem, where a variety of resource sharing solutions and software platforms exist. As terms like interoperability and collaboration become increasingly important, it seemed equally worthwhile to consolidate resources that anyone could use, regardless of institutional or organizational affiliation.

I graduated with a Master of Library and Information Science in May 2026. My program did not require a thesis or capstone project. However, for a time, because of a misunderstanding on my part, I believed that a capstone project would be required. During that time, I began drafting Shared Sphere so that it would be ready to serve as that project. Perhaps a website that simply cites the work of others would not have been considered worthy of a final project, but to me it embodied the spirit of resource sharing and offered practical value in ways that a paper theorizing might not. I had hoped to launch the site in January or February 2026. However, once I learned that no final project was required, I put Shared Sphere on hiatus so that I could focus on completing the remainder of my degree.

Shared Sphere as it exists today is the culmination of everything I’ve described above. Conceptual work on the project began in early 2024, while preparation for the website itself started in the summer of 2025.

At its core, Shared Sphere aims to provide links to resources from across the resource sharing community, organized by topic and presented in keeping with the spirit of resource sharing (a kind of library mutual aid). It is in everyone’s best interest to help one another succeed because this is such a reciprocal and interdependent field. Thus: sharing resource sharing resources.

My hope is for the site to be as comprehensive as possible. Because it is currently operated by a single individual, however, many resources will inevitably be missed or overlooked. If you know of a resource on the web -perhaps a webinar, journal article, or other freely available material – that is not referenced here, please send it my way. You can submit suggestions using this form and help make Shared Sphere a truly crowdsourced endeavor. Please note, however, that materials hidden behind a paywall or paid membership will not be referenced here unless they can be requested via interlibrary loan, such as journal articles or books.

Shared Sphere is entirely nonprofit and noncommercial. It is not affiliated with any educational institution, business, nonprofit organization, or consortium. The domain registration and hosting fees have been paid entirely out of my own pocket so that the site can remain free of advertising. It exists simply to connect the resource sharing community with its own community-created resources. If you are the creator or copyright holder of any material linked on this website and would like it removed, please contact me at sharedsphere@sharedsphere.org, and I will remove it. Everything appearing on this site is provided for educational purposes only, and I am most certainly not a lawyer or providing legal advice. 🙂