Draft:Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources Section

The Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) is a division of the American Library Association (ALA). There are several sections within RUSA, one of them being the Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources Section (STARS). Due to the large internal structure of the ALA, concerns began to arise about resource sharing due to decentralization of responsibility for this goal. STARS was created to meet this need in order to provide an organized, centralized group for members to discuss issues relating to interlibrary loan, document delivery, remote circulation, access services, cooperative reference, cooperative collection development, remote storage, and other shared library services by members of RUSA-STARS. . The origins of the group stem from 2002, when a proposal was submitted to a RUSA task force outlining the need for an resource sharing arm of RUSA. . The group was officially founded in 2004, and since then has been in charge of developing the Interlibrary Loan Code, which is reviewed and revised every seven years. RUSA STARS developed a checklist in 2011 that allows libraries to determine the extent of resource sharing in the institutions completing the survey. . A second version of the STARS checklist was released a few years later and remains available for libraries seeking to inventory the extent of their resource sharing.

Membership
STARS is one of the six sections of RUSA a division within the ALA. The membership consists of librarians and staff from all types of libraries interested in collection development, readers’ advisory, and publishing.

Related Organizations
STARS is one of six sections and five interest groups under RUSA. The other sections include:
 * Business Reference And Services Section (BRASS)
 * ETS: Emerging Technologies Section
 * History Section
 * Reference Services Section (RSS)
 * Collection Development and Evaluation Section

Committees

 * STARS Executive Committee
 * STARS Awards and Recognition Committee
 * International Interlibrary Loan Committee
 * Outreach and Engagement Committee
 * STARS Nominating Committee

Publications
RUSA publishes the RUSQ Journal, RUSA Quarterly Update, and documents relevant to professionals working in the field of reference services. The last issue was published in 2021, but after a three year hiatus, it was relaunched in 2024.

Awards

 * STARS Publication Recognition Award
 * STARS Mentoring Award
 * STARS Virginia Boucher Distinguished ILL (Interlibrary Loan) Librarian Award