[ILL-L] Requests for items your library already owns

[Ann Ackerson]

Wish I had not been curious.  I knew it was a lot but this past academic
year is running at 36% we own.  I think most of that is not being fully
aware of our online journal sources, even tho they are easy as pie to
find!!
 
Ann Ackerson
Colgate ILL
 

________________________________

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Robinson, Arthur 
Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2007 4:30 PM
To: vincentiw at mail.montclair.edu; Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: RE: [ILL-L] Requests for items your library already owns


I wish I could find a solution.  When I get such an ILL request, I make
sure the book/journal issue is in its proper place on the shelf, pull it
and put it behind the circ desk with the patron's name, then e-mail the
patron, explaining the items is avialable for pickup, asking him/her to
check in the future whether the library has something, and giving
him/her the link to the online catalog (or, if it's a journal, our
Periodical Holdings web page).  If it's an article in PDF in one of our
databases, I inform the patron how to access it, and send step-by-step
instructions on how to access and use our Journal Locator database in
the future.  But it doesn't always work.  Some of our patrons have
caught on (and when they send requests tell me "I've checked Periodical
Holdings and Journal Locator"), but others don't.  Recently I got my
16th separate request for items in our library from the same faculty
member.  (It's probably been more than 16; I just started keeping track
about three years ago.)
 
After eight years as a librarian I'm still intrigued by the disparate
attitudes of our patrons (especially faculty)--the ones who are
pleasantly surprised to find we own a standard book held by 1500
libraries, and the others who are shocked to learn we don't own a
19th-century book held by 20 libraries.
 
Arthur Robinson (GLG)

________________________________

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of William Vincenti
Sent: Thu 5/10/2007 3:48 PM
To: ILL-L
Subject: [ILL-L] Requests for items your library already owns



20-25% of the requests our ILL Department receives are for items that we
already own and responding to the patrons submitting the requests is
taking up quite a bit of time that could be used more productively
elsewhere.  The last I read in the literature this was a fairly common
problem.  Have there been any discussions lately about solutions?

On the technical side of things we're starting to explore filtering the
ILL form through our link resolver to use that as a way to make it more
clear to the patron whether we own it or not.

-Bill

--
William Vincenti
Reference Librarian
Harry A. Sprague Library
Montclair State University
Ph: 973-655-7147
Fx: 973-655-7780
Email:  vincentiw at mail.montclair.edu

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