[ILL-L] Looking for fill-rate benchmarks

[Campbell, Heather]

I haven't seen any benchmark stats about fill rates.  When I first began
my second stint in ILL 5 years ago, I was frustrated that fill rates ere
taken as an indication of the success of the ILL operation.  We were
asked for so many things that our policy statement said we wouldn't
lend.
After I lost a full-time staff member because our fill rate was low in
Lending, a sympathetic Admin supervisor suggested that we figure our
fill rates differently using the number of eligible requests (ie
requests that conform to our lending policy) instead of total requests
in our calculations.  Deflection made my job easier, but I still have to
enter all my stats into another spreadsheet to figure out what's
eligible and what's not before I get to the point where I am figuring
the fill rates.
 
As for using the rate to determine if ILL performance has improved
following the implementation of any ILL management system, you may want
to consider other factors- improved workflow/elimination of backlog,
turnaround time, etc.  The number of requests we handled in Borrowing
jumped after we implemented ILLiad because our customers could directly
make their request from home (I always know what books were discussed on
morning news shows) or office without librarian assistance.  Overdue
notices were easier to handle; my staff no longer had to manually type
up notices. 
 
As libraries cut their materials spending and their customers have to
depend upon ILL for popular titles, the amount of books readily
available for ILL shrinks.  I've noticed that there are a number of
titles we get a lot of requests for.  Most of these are by popular
authors that are also in demand by our customers.   Is the resulting
lower fill rate a reflection of ILL doing a bad job or a reflection of a
lack of money to sustain a collection so that it has enough copies for
its customers AND for other libraries' customers?
 

Heather Campbell
Special Services ~ Interlibrary Loan and Books By Mail
Jacksonville Public Library (OCLC:JPL)                    303 North
Laura Street
Jacksonville, Florida 32202
heatherc at coj.net  904-630-7017  VM:904-630-2985

 

________________________________

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Barbara Schoenfield
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 4:31 PM
To: ill-l at webjunction.org
Subject: [ILL-L] Looking for fill-rate benchmarks



Can anyone share benchmarks, averages, or best practice recommendations
for lending and borrowing fill rates?  The only one I've come across was
from a mid-90's ARL study.  I know that NCES and ACRL surveys provide
data to determine lending/borrowing rates, but I'm wondering about
filled/requested rates.  I'm trying to determine a reasonable rate of
increase as one of the measures by which to assess ILL performance
following ILLiad implementation.  

 

Thanks for your suggestions,

 

Barbara  

 

________________________________

Barbara Schoenfield, MSW, MLIS

Interim University Librarian

Roosevelt University Library

430 S. Michigan

Chicago, IL  60605

Phone: 312.341.3652
Fax: 312.341.2425

_______________________________

 

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