[ILL-L] ? Very Low Number of New Lending

Tue Sep 9 12:55:22 EDT 2008

I have been following this thread with great interest because our ILL borrowing rates are down this year, though lending is holding steady.  We are library system with 26 branches, a Central office and ebranch and use ILLiad as our ILL software.

I was wondering if any of you have made changes in ILL staffing levels or the responsibilities of current ILL staff as a result of this downward trend?   In our ILL operation, I have 2 paraprofessionals who handle our volume of lending/borrowing and 1 ILL clerical assistant, but as a result of the decline in the number of borrowing requests, the paraprofessional staff has actually had time to do the daily clerical duties of ILL as well.  As a result, I have temporarily "loaned" our ILL clerical assistant to work on a library digitization project.  

My thoughts are that our ILL borrowing is down for a variety of reasons:  our own collection is meeting the needs of our customers, be it with print or online resources; if our customers need it now, they don't want to wait for an ILL to arrive; less trips to the public library due to gas prices (another reason not to ILL if not available when they come), etc. 

At any rate, I was curious about staffing patterns or changes in light of the decline of ILL borrowing at your institutions.  Do you think that this trend will continue downward and/or whatever happens, do you see any changes in your ILL staffing situations?  It's something that I've been thinking about and wondered what others in ILL are considering.  Thanks!

Elaine S. Plotkin, ILL Manager
Harris County Public Library System (HT#)
Houston, TX
eplotkin at hcpl.net

-----Original Message-----
From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Denise L Montgomery
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 11:38 AM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Cc: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: Re: RE: [ILL-L] ? Very Low Number of New Lending Requests(especiallyjournals) ?

Try looking at your own borrowing numbers as well. I did a quick 
comparison check in ILLIAD of the numbers from the beginning of the 
term to today of this year, and the same period last year in ILLiad, 
and I was surprised to find they had dropped overall from 
411 to 237 this year. The big drop was from 317 to 133 in periodicals 
(bearing out Melissa's theory of full-text journals in databases and 
open-source journals on the net). Personally, I don't think Odyssey has 
anything to do with it, nor RAPID: those are just delivery methods 
folks: if anything, the speed involved ought to bring us more requests 
since our users want it at all possible speed, especially if we are 
unafraid to toot our horns and say how good we are at getting it fast!

Book requests actually went up, which in our state is pretty surprising 
because we have serious competition from GIL Express, our 
patron-initiated ILL system. The numbers rose from 94 to 104! Maybe it 
has something to do with the fact that we turned on Direct Request in 
our system, and advertised the fact that if you put in the ISBN #, it 
could be processed automatically? (subject to the restrictions in our 
profile, of course--but we don't say that on the log-in page).

And the funny thing is, most of the time it hasn't worked since we 
upgraded to 7.3! It tries--and indicates that on the request--but we 
haven't had any requests go through on Direct Request since the upgrade.

                                  Denise Montgomery
                                  Valdsota State University Library

Melissa Jackson wrote:

>Yes, we have our LHRs in OCLC.  We've been updating and adding to them 
over the summer, as well as updating the database our patrons use to 
search our holdings. 
>
>Melissa Jackson
>ILL Librarian
>Armstrong Atlantic State University (GAC)
>
>
>>>> 
>From: 	"Carol A. Vaeth" <cvaeth at ubalt.edu>
>To:	"Interlibrary Loan Listserv" <ill-l at webjunction.org>
>Date: 	9/9/2008 9:38 AM
>Subject: 	RE: [ILL-L] ? Very Low Number of New Lending 
Requests(especiallyjournals) ?
>
>Just out of curiosity, do those libraries that are seeing a reduction in
>Lending have their LHRs (local holding records)in OCLC?  I suspect that
>many libraries take the time in the summer to update their Custom
>Holdings lists and we all know that when selecting our lender string, we
>favor those libraries that show their holdings information. Just another
>possible factor...
>
>Carol A. Vaeth 
>ILL Coordinator - BAL       It doesn't get better
>Langsdale Library                  or worse; 
>University of Baltimore     it just gets different.
>1420 Maryland Ave
>Baltimore MD 21201-5706
>cvaeth at ubalt.edu          
>(410) 837-4283
>fax (410) 837-4330
>ariel 198.202.3.140
>P Please consider the environment before printing this email.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org 
>[mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Willa Reister
>Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 9:21 AM
>To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
>Subject: RE: [ILL-L] ? Very Low Number of New Lending
>Requests(especiallyjournals) ?
>
>Full text databases are certainly a factor.  We are using them to fill
>many 
>of our requests and assume we are not alone.
>Willa Reister
>
>--
>Interlibrary Loan
>Knox County Public Library System
>500 W Church
>Knoxville, TN 37902
>
>865-215-8746
>Fax to 865-215-8708
>
>---------- Original Message -----------
>From: "Melissa Jackson" <Melissa.Jackson at armstrong.edu>
>To: "Interlibrary Loan Listserv" <ill-l at webjunction.org>
>Sent: Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:51:32 -0400
>Subject: RE: [ILL-L] ? Very Low Number of New Lending Requests 
>(especiallyjournals) ?
>
>> We've noticed lower-than-usual numbers as well.  We've been thinking 
>> that it was in part due to the rise in full-text databases.
>> 
>> Melissa Jackson
>> ILL Librarian
>> Armstrong Atlantic State University (GAC)
>> 
>
>
>
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