[ILL-L] WorldCat Searching

[Bell.Jacobsen at state.sd.us]

Stephen,

 

Just wanted to thank you for your tips, in this day of instant
gratification we sometimes forget that there are limits on the searching
screens. 

 

Thanks, again.

 

Bell Jacobsen 
South Dakota State Library 

-----Original Message-----
From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Stephen Breedlove
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 7:37 PM
To: ill-l at webjunction.org
Subject: [ILL-L] WorldCat Searching

 

Dear List Members,

 

For the past year or so I have noticed, and I hope others have noticed,
two alarming trends in interlibraryloanland:

 

(1) Libraries are requesting print books on the OCLC records for
e-books.

 

(2) Libraries are requesting articles on the OCLC records for the online
journals instead of the records for the print editions.

 

(1) Everyday, we receive through WorldCat Resource Sharing several loan
requests from libraries that were submitted on the OCLC records for
e-books.  Since we can't lend e-books and in most cases do not own the
print versions of the books requested, we say No to these requests and
wonder if these libraries ever obtain the books they are requesting.
When you search WorldCat and don't limit your search to Books, the
record for the e-book may be the first in the list because OCLC lists
the records in descending order by number of holdings.  In many cases
these days, more libraries may hold the e-book than the print version. 

 

For instance, A behavioral approach to asset pricing (2005).  We
received a request today on the OCLC e-book record and were third in the
lender string.  If you search by keyword without limiting to Books, the
e-book record (60709792) shows up first.  This record has a globe icon
to the left of it and an http address under the title.  The second
record (56103817) is the print record and has a blue book icon to the
left of it.  If you want to borrow this book from another library, use
this record.

 

(2) Everyday, we say No to many requests for journal articles because
the requests were made on OCLC records for online journals instead of
print editions and we don't hold the print editions and don't have
online access to the online issue holding the article requested.  Do
these libraries ever obtain the articles they are requesting?

 

For instance, Neonatalogy: fetal and neonatal research.  We received a
request today on the record for the online version of this serial and
were fourth in the lender string.  If you search OCLC without limiting
to Serial Publications, the online version (81281593) with the globe
icon to the left is listed first with 126 holdings.  The print version
(76838327) with the 3 red books icon is listed second with 64 holdings.
The OCLC record for the print version should be used because if a
library has a current print subscription to it they probably will hold
that 2008 issue that may be blocked in the online version.  If they also
have online access to the journal and have the issue, they will probably
go to the online version and supply a PDF of the article instead of
scanning from the print version.

 

I have toyed with the idea of doing material type deflect for online
journals so I won't have to say No to so many requests, but sometimes we
may only hold the online version and can supply the article.

 

One of the goals in the interlibrary loan process is to obtain materials
as quickly as possible.  Unless I am missing something somewhere, the
above two phenomena don't seem to reach this goal.  Thanks for letting
me ramble on about this.

 

W. Stephen Breedlove, MLS, MA

Reference Librarian/Interlibrary Loan Coordinator

Connelly Library, La Salle University

breedlov at lasalle.edu

215-951-1862

 

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