The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines “resource” as ‘A means of supplying some want or deficiency; a stock or reserve upon which one can draw when necessary’. The Collins English Dictionary further defines “resources” as ‘a source of economic wealth especially of a country or business enterprise (capital,equipment,personnel,etc.)’.

The essential theme of this Workshop is resource sharing because it has been organized to provide an opportunity for librarians of astronomical observatories and institutions to meet to discuss common problems and ways of stimulating greater cooperation between libraries in different countries. The White House Conference on Library and Information Services held in 1979 outlined the justifications for resource sharing by stating:... ‘resource sharing is now mandated by the information explosion, the advance of modern technology, the rapidly escalating costs of needed resources, and the wide disparity between resources available to individuals by reason of geographic location or socio-economic position’.