[ILL-L] Managing ILL duties

[Andrea Craley]

January 18, 2008

Hi there,

My experience will be similar to other responses so far.

I am a full-time Library Technician (degreed Librarian) in charge of ILL at Harford Community College Library. I specifically do all the ILL borrowing, and another full-time Library Technician in Tech Services does all the ILL lending. I help to supervise the ILL lending, train her on updates, field questions, etc. She is however also cross-trained to do ILL borrowing, and takes care of that in the event that I am away (for instance, I was on maternity leave last April through June). And I also do ILL lending when she may be out for any reason.

As others mentioned, most of our full-time Technical Services Library Technicians are cross-trained in other duties. ILL is only one thing I do - I also staff the Digital Library Desk and Reference Desk and have hours on Maryland AskUsNow virtual reference, I manage and supervise the processing of our Government Documents, catalog Gov Docs and other materials as assigned, and teach Information Literacy classes. Since I accepted additional duties, this was the main reason ILL lending was given to a colleague (I used to do both before I accrued more duties). My colleague who does ILL lending also staffs the Circulation Desk, catalogs Reserve materials, catalogs continuations and other materials as assigned. In some cases where my additional duties are my focus and I may not be able to get to ILL borrowing, my colleage does help me with ILL borrowing requests if she is not busy. In cases of more specialized and difficult searches though on the borrowing side, I usually handle those (the Reference Librarian in me digs until I reach an absoulte dead end!) We do all our Interlibrary Loan through WorldCat Resource Sharing via FirstSearch. We accept borrowing request via the Review File in FirstSearch (submitted either by the patron or by the Reference Librarian for the patron), through our HCC Library webapge ILL request page (comes into an ILL email we both check), through direct email to either of us, through paper forms submitted to Reference Desk (just a few this way anymore), through fax, or through personal phone call to either of us (I've got a county resident who calls me periodically to try to "stump me" with special research requests). We accept lending requests via WRS/FirstSearch Pending file, emails from Libraries to the ILL email or either of our emails, through fax, through mail (if anyone still uses ALA form), or phone calls to either of us from Libraries.

Doing both ILL borrowing and lending became too much for me as I accepted additional duties after I got my MLS. Cross-training is important however as others have said, in case of emergencies and time off. Most of us in Techncial Services staff several service desks and have several duties. My ILL colleague and I don't have other staff other students pull materials or requests for us, or do the shipping for ILL. It's just 2 of us doing all the processing work for ILL borrowing and ILL lending.

Hope that helps!
Andie Craley
Harford Community College Library ILL (HAR)

Andie Craley, MS/ILS
Library Technician - Specialist IV
Government Documents
Interlibrary Loan Borrowing Contact
Harford Community College Library
401 Thomas Run Road
Bel Air, MD 21015-1698
PHONE:  410-836-4000, Ext. # 7143
FAX:  410-836-4137
EMAIL:  acraley at harford.edu


>>> "D. Phillips" <shonden at gmail.com> 1/18/2008 3:24 AM >>>

Hi,
I'm hoping someone will be able to answer my question. I am the sole interlibrary loan clerk at my library. Until recently, this had not been a problem. We used to charge our patrons a fee to place a request. Because of this, not many patrons made requests. Last December our director decided to change the our policy and make EVERY aspect of interlibrary loan FREE. Well, needless to say, now that everything is free, ILL request have increased beyond my ability to handle them alone. So now I'm going to have another staff member help me with this. What I need to know is how do other libraries divide the responsibilities of interlibrary loan between multiple staff? I have the impression that in some libraries certain staff does borrowing only while other staff does lending only. Being so use to doing them both I'm not quite sure of how to separate the different duties of the job or even if I should.  
Your help is very appreciated.
D.P. 
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