[ILL-L] Once upon a time in ILL...

Fri Jun 5 10:12:59 EDT 2009

My first stint in ILL occurred as OCLC ILL had just come on the scene but the teletype was still with us for requests sent to us by the State Library referral center.  I would have to take the long long sheet of yellow paper with the unalphabetized list of authors and titles  to the card catalog to look the call numbers up and then we had to type in what we'd found so the next resource center could answer what they had- and so on and so on. You got all requests- not just the ones you owned.  The teletype was located in the workroom which was too small for the staff (We had a box on a shelf instead of a desk.  If you were lucky, you got your own shelf.)  and it was noisy and sneaky.  Many newspaper index cards had to be done over because the teletype would start up and startle us causing our pens to skitter across the cards.  Ah!  Good times!  Good times!

Don't miss those times a bit. Not even that <> much.

Heather Campbell

Manager- Special Services (Interlibrary Loan and Books by Mail)

Jacksonville Public Library (JPL)

303 North Laura Street

Jacksonville, FL 32202-3505 heatherc at coj.net  (904) 630-2986

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From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Collette Mak
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 12:15 PM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: RE: [ILL-L] Once upon a time in ILL...

Teletype!  Sheesh, I had a boss who scolded me for letting my staff see me use the teletype because typing wasn't profssional.   

Back when I was at U of Michigan (go blue!) the most frequently LENT book was "emergency childbirth".    You can imagine the jokes and it never got old.

Collette Mak

Notre Dame

cmak at nd.edu

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From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Carmela Kinslow [Carmela.R.Kinslow.1 at nd.edu]
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 11:50 AM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: RE: [ILL-L] Once upon a time in ILL...

The bad days indeed.  Been involved with ILL for a very long time (30+ years) and to think of where we came and what we managed to get done despite the 

"hardships" of NST, NUC and Mansel.  I also remember at Hesburgh Library (this was in the early 1970's) using a teletype machine to send requests to the Univ. of Illinois Slavic  Slavic and East European Library.  The one thing I would not trade is being there at the inception of OCLC and to experience the tremendous strides that ILL has taken over all these many, many years. ...  Yep, those were the days!  Thanks for the memories!    Have a good weekend!

Carmela

Carmela Kinslow

Associate Librarian

Head of Access Services

Kresge Library

Notre Dame Law School

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Collette Mak
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 10:57 AM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: RE: [ILL-L] Once upon a time in ILL...

Ah, the bad old days!     If we're going down memory lane, anyone else remember when the OCLC symbols were in the order the symbol was added?    Big day when they organized them by state.   But even the random symbols were better than just NUC and Mansel!

Collette Mak

Notre Dame

cmak at nd.edu

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Carol A. Vaeth
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 10:40 AM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: RE: [ILL-L] Once upon a time in ILL...

This might not be exactly what you are looking for, but I love this story.

Many moons ago...when ILL requests were received in the mail on 4 part carbon paper forms...I received a book request that was typed, but one word in the title was hand corrected.  The typed title was "Adolescent Sin Offenders: issues in Research & Treatment."

The word 'sin' was crossed out and the correct word for the title was handwritten...'sex.'  I thought that was quite Freudian!!

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 <mailto: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.

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Chappell, Cyndi, JCL
Sent: Thursday, June 04, 2009 10:17 AM
To: ill-l at webjunction.org
Subject: [ILL-L] Once upon a time in ILL...

Fellow ILL folks,

I am putting together an ILL Tour and Overview session, which will be attended by staff here at Johnson County Library (KNJ).  To spare them from an entire hour and ½ of dry procedures, statistics, etc., I'd like to throw some humor into the mix.  Would anyone care to share some examples of strange, funny, and-I-thought-I'd-seen-it-all types of requests you've seen come through your departments, either on the borrowing or lending side of ILL?  

Many thanks!

Cyndi Chappell

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