[ILL-L] ? Very Low Number of New LendingRequests(especiallyjournals) ?

[Campbell, Heather]

I've been keeping a line chart comparing our Lending fills and our
Borrowing fills. It's been very odd.  In May, we were told only to fill
ILL Lending from Main's Collection, Naturally, our Lending fills went
down by around 20% a month. But- our Borrowing fill numbers also went
down.  We still fill the same percentage of requests (95% and up) but
the numbers have gone down to the numbers we had in mid 2006.  You could
put it down to a "summer slump", I guess, but that didn't happen in
2007. 


Heather Campbell
Special Services ~ Interlibrary Loan and Books By Mail
Jacksonville Public Library
Jacksonville, Florida 32202
ill at coj.net    904-630-2985 


-----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 12:38 PM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Cc: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: Re: RE: [ILL-L] ? Very Low Number of New
LendingRequests(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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