Rising to the challenge: How the SHARES resource sharing community navigated a global disruption to international shipping
_Image from pixabay.com_
In late August 2025, interlibrary loan staff at libraries across the United States found themselves facing an unprecedented situation. Revocation of the _De Minimus_ tariff exemption for packages worth less than $800, due to become effective on 29 August 2025, threw a blanket of uncertainty over global international shipping operations. More than a dozen countries abruptly paused all shipping to the US; document suppliers and book vendors announced that they, too, would stop shipping to the US until the practical impacts became known. ILL folks had reason to wonder if physical library materials in transit across borders would ever reach their destinations and if new shipments in either direction would be hit with tariffs, incurring unbudgeted and unpredictable expenses.
This global kerfuffle is now well into its third week. The SHARES community, a multinational resource sharing consortium whose members are being impacted in different ways depending on their local context, responded as resource sharing practitioners always do: by banding together, pooling uncertainties, sharing strategies and workarounds, and supporting each other with facts, encouragement, and good humor.
## **Daily challenges countered by sustained real-time ILL collaboration**
The disruption first surfaced on the SHARES-L mailing list on 25 August, when libraries began reporting that major European shipping companies like DHL and Deutsche Post were pausing shipments to the US. The University of Tennessee shared that GEBAY, a major German document supplier, had already begun canceling US loan requests, citing the loss of the under-$800 exemption.
Libraries immediately began sharing their approaches and real-time results. The University of Waterloo in Canada reported experiencing occasional tariff issues on incoming items but planned to continue sharing with US partners. Pennsylvania State University established review processes for international requests and began using specific language on customs forms—”Any value stated is for insurance purposes only”—with some initial success. The University of Pennsylvania, a prolific borrower and supplier of library materials across borders, took a more cautious tack, temporarily pausing all international sharing after having an item stuck in Hong Kong customs, requiring $500 for its release. The University of Glasgow began changing their customs forms from “temporary export” to “personal, not for resale,” which seemed to help avoid additional shipping charges on packages shipped to the US. Yale University and the University of Michigan reported receiving direct notifications from additional European suppliers about temporary service suspensions.
As coordinator of the RLP SHARES community, I synthesized the threads each day and created a shared document where SHARES members could add updates. I also added the _De Minimus_ exemption revocation to the agenda of an upcoming SHARES town hall.
On 26 August 2025, the day after the topic surfaced on SHARES-L, 32 participants attended SHARES Town Hall #264 to compare notes on the latest intelligence coming from shippers and overseas libraries and to share their current strategies. The University of Kansas suggested sending conditional responses to prospective overseas borrowers of physical items, asking for confirmation that they would be able to ship items back to the US once they receive them, and offering to scan tables of contents and indexes as a short-term alternative to physical loans. Recognizing that the complexity of the situation varied by carrier and region, the University of Pittsburgh commenced tracking the statuses of individual shipping companies and countries rather than implementing blanket restrictions. SHARES folks renewed their commitment to updating the shared document with all the latest developments.
The situation continued to evolve rapidly. Later that same week, Princeton University reported that several major international book vendors had informed them they would not be shipping new books to the US until customs procedures were clarified, indicating the impact extended far beyond interlibrary loans to also impact academic acquisitions. The CUNY Graduate Center added Brazil to the growing list of countries that have suspended all shipments to the US. This prompted a suggestion to integrate the evolving country-by-country shipping status into the existing International ILL Toolkit, a crowd-sourced tool used by libraries across the world, created by SHARES during a town hall in 2022.
By 4 September, practical advice from shipping companies began to emerge. The Getty Research Institute shared the following, which they’d just received from FedEx:
_The traditional wording (“loan between libraries, no commercial value”) is no longer sufficient on its own. Going forward, they should:_
_1. Always include a numeric HTS code (4901.x for books; 9801.00.10 for U.S. goods returned)._
_2. Declare a nominal value rather than “no commercial value.”_
_3. Add clarifying language like “interlibrary loan – not for sale – temporary export/return.”_
_This ensures [domestic and foreign customs] process the shipments correctly as duty-free, non-commercial library loans._
Other libraries reported successfully receiving packages from Australia with a tariff of only $10.
By 9 September, 15 days after the topic first surfaced on SHARES-L, participants at SHARES Town Hall #266 reported feeling confident they can once again share physical items across most borders with, at worst, minimal disruption and modest fees. Later in the week, Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania each reported having to reimburse DHL $18.38 for paying duties on packages coming back to them in the US from Canada; Penn plans to dispute the charge retroactively, as these are shared library materials, not commercial imports. A few universities are still pausing their international sharing, but most are back at it, full speed ahead.
## **Two paths for collaboration**
The community response emerged through two distinct but interconnected channels: the asynchronous SHARES-L mailing list and the SHARES town halls. The mailing list discussion centered on the immediate sharing and problem-solving, with institutions reporting their individual circumstances and strategies. This allowed all SHARES members a chance to participate at their convenience. The town halls provided a crucial real-time forum where a subset of SHARES practitioners could engage in dynamic discussion, ask questions, coordinate responses, and coalesce around a set of preferred practices, with the outcomes being cycled back to all SHARES participants for comment via the SHARES-L mailing list.
## **The power of community**
The SHARES response to the recent disruption of international shipping exemplifies the extraordinary power of community. Through information sharing, collaborative problem-solving, and mutual support, the SHARES network transformed individual institutional confusion into collective wisdom. Time and again, connections to trusted peers have proven to be every bit as essential as all the other types of infrastructure we depend upon to do our jobs.
Dennis Massie
Dennis is a senior program officer for the OCLC Research Library Partnership, where he conducts research projects centered on sharing collections and coordinates the SHARES resource sharing consortium.
