[ILL-L] an enhancement I'd love to see in WRS

[Joe Ellison]

Folks,

I just sent a comment to OCLC regarding an enhancement I think would 
be useful in WRS, and thought I'd share it with the list to spark 
some discussion. Background info--I don't currently use any of the 
commercial ILL management systems, and my homebrewed Access databases 
don't interface with WorldCat Resource Sharing. Therefore, I work 
directly in the WRS interface when performing my ILL duties. Being in 
a special library within the university library system, my office is 
a relatively small operation compared to main university ILL units, 
handling roughly 2000 lending and 100 borrowing requests annually. 
ILL is not my only duty. I spend about 7 hours weekly on reference 
desk duty, and also spend time on various scanning projects and the 
ubiquitous other duties as assigned. I have one 10-hr/week student 
assistant, with that position currently vacant.

Keeping all that in mind, I find that periodically checking WRS for 
new requests and action needed/taken on existing requests is the only 
way I can keep on top of things, but it becomes tiresome (to say the 
least) and, I feel, wastes a certain amount of my time. I can, of 
course, limit myself to checking only at set intervals. It struck me, 
though, that this would be the perfect place to have an RSS feed to 
which one could subscribe. It would alert the subscriber to the 
existence of new pending requests on the lending side, as well as 
changes in status to requests in both lending and borrowing (renewal 
requests, renewals granted, items returned, etc.). Ideally one could 
customize the feed to report only statuses that require further 
action (e.g., new pendings and pending/conditionals, but not returns 
in lending; conditionals and refusals, but not shipped in borrowing).

Anyone else think this would be useful?


Joe Ellison
Document Delivery Assistant, Transportation Library (OCLC symbol JCR)
Northwestern University Library, 1970 Campus Dr.
Evanston, IL  60208-2300
phone: (847)491-8600, fax: (847)491-8601
j-ellison at northwestern.edu
ARIEL: 129.105.19.35 or staff019035.library.northwestern.edu
Visit the Transportation Library: 
http://www.library.northwestern.edu/transportation