Librarian David Atkins is the 2012 recipient of the Tenn-Share Resource Sharing Award. Atkins is associate professor and head of resource sharing and document delivery at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Libraries.

The Tenn-Share consortium — with over 600 member libraries, museums, archives and information agencies — helps Tennessee libraries deliver efficient, effective library services through group purchasing power and innovative resource sharing projects.

Atkins is being recognized for his ongoing leadership within Tenn-Share and his tireless promotion of resource sharing efforts across the state and around the world.

He is active in many state, regional, and international resource sharing endeavors. He pioneered a cooperative library exchange program between the UT Libraries and Makerere University Libraries in Kampala, Uganda, and helped Makerere implement an electronic document delivery system.

Atkins has led many Tenn-Share projects including the Auto-Graphics-to-ILLiad Bridge (connecting the state’s public library and UT interlibrary loan systems) and Info-to-Go (which gives the Knox County Public Schools interlibrary loan access to the Knox County Public Libraries and UT Libraries).

Most recently, he spearheaded efforts to create a new statewide, library-to-library courier service, Firefly (www.tenn-share.org/firefly), to facilitate interlibrary loans among all types of libraries in Tennessee. (The service draws its name from the synchronous fireflies of the Great Smoky Mountains.) Tenn-Share launched a prototype of the Firefly courier service, dubbed Glowworm, in August. In November, Firefly will begin serving more than 200 academic, public, and school libraries across Tennessee.

Atkins currently chairs the American Library Association’s Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources Section (STARS) and is a past chair of the ALA sectional committee on international interlibrary loan.

Atkins will receive the Resource Sharing Award at Tenn-Share’s fall conference in Nashville on September 28.