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“One of You Can Cut the Cake; The Other Picks the First Slice,” Routes to Consider How to Selfishly Improve Academic Library Delivery Through Shared Services

This article seeks to explore the sharing relationships and behaviors in academic library and information services—reflecting on some of the practical considerations for internal and external Shared Services. The title reflects an observation made when sharing cake among children: if one child cuts the cake and the other takes the first slice, the first child will take special care to ensure that the slices are equal. In this sharing management technique, “fairness” is perceptible and transparent. The technique addresses the inherent weakness in the trust relationship among the children. The article attempts to differentiate between service “sharing” and “Shared Services” in order to clarify the underlying factors in some of the sectors’ greatest successes in sharing, as well as some of the more uneven outcomes of Shared Service delivery. In particular, it seeks to explore the propensity, capacity, and appetite for sharing, as derived from the relationships academic library services have developed in the first two decades of convergence.