Lyrasis: announcing LYRA resource sharing group

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Press Release

LYRASIS Launches LYRA Resource Sharing Group

Atlanta, GA, November 9, 2009 -- LYRASIS announces the launch of 
LYRA, a new resource sharing group serving the LYRASIS Southeast, 
Mid-Atlantic, and New England regions.

As the nation's largest regional organization serving librarians 
and information professionals, LYRASIS facilitates collaborative 
initiatives and promotes expanded opportunities for members to 
share with each other. The new LYRA resource sharing initiative 
is an excellent example of the organization's vision.

LYRA is an opt-in resource sharing group open to all LYRASIS 
members. Members of LYRA will agree to borrow and lend returnable 
items (books and other resources) to other LYRA members for free. 
"Covering more than 22 states plus the U.S. Virgin Islands and 
Puerto Rico, LYRA represents a major increase in free lending 
opportunities for LYRASIS members," said Russell Palmer, 
educational services librarian at LYRASIS.

Legacy LYRASIS organizations (PALINET, SOLINET, and NELINET) 
maintained smaller regional resource sharing groups in their 
original regions, including No Bucks (NELINET), and SOLINE 
(SOLINET), which remain active and available to LYRASIS members. 
LYRASIS will continue to manage the SOLINE and NO Bucks resource 
sharing groups. In addition, the SO6 group, formerly composed of 
a subset of SOLINE libraries agreeing to lend non-returnable 
items (photocopies of articles) to each other for free, will now 
be open to all interested LYRA members, greatly expanding the 
opportunities for sharing articles from journals, magazines, 
newspapers, and other serials.

"Members have outstanding options now for resource sharing and 
can choose the right one for their library. They can maintain 
membership in the smaller regional groups as their sole 
affiliation; join LYRA in addition and greatly expand their 
resource sharing capabilities; join SO6 for serials sharing; or 
they can opt to join only LYRA," said Palmer.

For LYRASIS members interested in participating in LYRA or SO6, 
for more information, or to update/change resource sharing group 
memberships, contact the Member Services Help Desk at 
800.999.8558 or email membersupport@lyrasis.org.

About Lyrasis

Created in 2009 by the merger of PALINET and SOLINET and later 
joined by NELINET, LYRASIS is the nation's largest regional 
membership organization serving libraries and information 
professionals. The primary service area is the Mid-Atlantic, 
Southeastern, and New England regions but LYRASIS has members in 
many US states and in other countries. Though large in scale, 
LYRASIS is known for its local touch -- fostering collaboration 
and cooperation among members and facilitating their success 
through networking and collaboration, innovative solutions, and 
significant cost savings through group purchasing for products 
and services. For more information, please visit www.lyrasis.org.

Contact:
Kathy Anderson, Writer/Editor 800.233.3401, ext. 1223 
kathy.anderson@lyrasis.org
Donna Vito, Manager of Communications 800.233.3401, ext. 1235
donna.vito@lyrasis.org