[ILL-L] RE: OCLC SEARCHING

[Schwartz, Andrea]

Stephen (and other List members)-

As a nearby library that might be bothering you with these requests, I thought I'd reply as to why we sometimes use the online resource record in OCLC even though, as you say, it's a crap shoot.

We always check the print record for a journal first.  But if there's no free source for the item or all free sources in my Custom Holdings lack the year/volume I need, I often turn to the record for the electronic resource.  We're an LVIS library, so our net is pretty wide but there's some scarce/expensive stuff out there that we can't get for free through our various consortia.  I can't pay $$ for articles for undergrads, so if I don't try the electronic resource, I have to cancel the patron's request (or ask them if they're willing to pay for it, but they never are).  Like others have said, this works just often enough that I keep doing it.  I try not to let the request drag on forever-for one thing, the patron probably doesn't need it after a week/10 days.  Our Borrowing volume is low enough that I can keep a close eye on these and cancel them after a few tries.

I posted some time ago about the dilemma we're facing here at Bloomsburg with our OCLC LHRs.  Past practice had been to close our print LHR when we stopped getting the journal in print, and rely solely on our symbol attached (w/o any local holdings of course) to the electronic resource.  I'm guessing this was done without much thought to how this would impact ILL.  It's misleading to other libraries, since we often have electronic access to the journal after we stopped getting it in print and may be able to fill an ILL request.  It seems to me there may be other libraries out there like us, so if you *never* look at/use the electronic record, you may be missing a library that can supply you with a journal article.  I'd be interested to know what LAS (or anyone else) is doing with their LHRs when you stop receiving a journal in print, and go w/ online access only.

Andrea Schwartz
Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania (PBB)
aschwart at bloomu.edu<mailto:aschwart at bloomu.edu>
570-389-4218

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Breedlove, W Stephen
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 9:02 PM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: [ILL-L] RE: OCLC SEARCHING

List members,

The responses to my posting on Nov 4 on OCLC SEARCHING were interesting.  Some folks understood the point I was trying to make; some didn't.  I will say a few more things and then shut up about it.

My point had nothing to do with licensing agreements, or meanly blocking other libraries from obtaining articles from us.  My point was about performing effective searching in OCLC so that you obtain what you need as quickly as possible.  Unless I've missed something in my almost 22 years and counting of working and supervising in interlibrary loan and document delivery, the purpose of all this is to obtain materials for our patrons as quickly as possible.  Currently, here at La Salle we are obtaining many articles on the same day that we request them--thanks to those wonderful libraries with whom we participate in Rapid ILL--and Rapid does the looking up for you!  Even through OCLC, we receive items much faster than in the past.

When I say "online journal" I mean online versions of journals that are also published in print.  I don't mean journals that are only published online.  That's another ballgame.  If you request an article on the OCLC record for the print version of a journal, find out what libraries hold the vol/year that your article is in by clicking on your Custom Holdings--you know what Custom Holdings is, don't you?--set up your lender string, and then produce your request, you have a much, much better chance of getting your article than using the OCLC record for the online version of the journal.  We were receiving tons of requests coming to us every day on records for online versions of journals when, in many cases, the online journal wasn't available to us for the vol/issue that was needed.  If a library holds an online version of a journal, and you have submitted a request for an article on the record for the print version, more than likely that library will fill from the online version, instead of scanning from the print issue.

Interlibrary loan shouldn't be a crap shoot.

W. Stephen Breedlove
Reference Librarian/Interlibrary Loan Coordinator
Connelly Library, La Salle University

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