HERMES, an international project on free digital resource sharing

Abstract

In 2020, the COVID-19 situation forced academic libraries to move exclusively to the Web. Library closure led to key issues for the scientific community: the unavailability of physical collections, the lack of digitization of paper assets, the inadequacy of catalogues, the absence of information on e-book and electronic resource availability, problems in delivering digital documents to users, and a general lack of competencies in searching and retrieving digital documents. To respond to the COVID-19 emergency in the library field, in April 2020 a group of volunteer librarians under the aegis of IFLA created “Resource Sharing during COVID-19” (RSCVD): the first experiment in free digital resource sharing worldwide. After the success of the RSCVD Project in the face of the COVID emergency, the Erasmus Plus Programme, through the HERMES Project, provided the opportunity to put in place a multifaceted action which can have long-lasting impacts.