[ILL-L] conditional & incorrect citations

Tue Oct 27 13:44:53 EDT 2009

I agree with Steven. While the Periodicals staff usually attack
Periodical requests with the tenacity of bulldogs,  we have been and are
for the foreseeable future under a hiring freeze and we're
short-staffed. They have fewer opportunities in their schedules to
appease their 'inner bulldog'. As a public library we may not have
access to the variety of resources academic libraries have to verify the
correct citation information.  For a lot of Genealogy photocopy
requests- the patron is on a "fishing expedition" so doesn't have the
sources that state the information they seek is in our sources.  That's
why we conditional the requests for 'bad' cites- to let borrowers know
there's a problem with the request.

Heather Campbell, Senior Librarian

Manager- Interlibrary Loan 

Jacksonville Public Library (JPL)

303 North Laura Street

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

________________________________

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Breedlove, W Stephen
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 10:40 AM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: Re: [ILL-L] conditional & incorrect citations

I can understand your point, but my point was not that a library should
stop and try to verify the information but should Conditional the
request with a note such as Check citation or Not found as cited, so the
request will not go to the next library in the string.  The burden of
verifying the information should fall on the requesting library.  It
doesn't take but a few more seconds to Conditional a request than to say
No.  Continuously saying No doesn't help anyone when the citation is
incorrect.  Saying No because you're "swamped" and assuming that the
next library will take the time to help out the requesting library by
trying to verify the citation doesn't solve anything.  

W. Stephen Breedlove

Reference and Interlibrary Loan Librarian

La Salle University Library

From: ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:ill-l-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Robyn Clark-Bridges
Sent: Tuesday, October 27, 2009 12:00 AM
To: Interlibrary Loan Listserv
Subject: Re: [ILL-L] conditional & incorrect citations

It depends on how busy I am on any given day w/ ILL requests as to how
much time I can devote to correcting an incoming citation.  I'm guessing
the libraries who say 'no' & pass it on down the string are swamped &
don't have extra time to do the necessary sleuthing.  Also, some ILL
colleagues have students filling ILL requests with little professional
oversight, which makes it more likely that the request will quickly get
passed on with an incorrect citation.

I love challenges & often thrive on finding what nobody else can
find...being the 4th or last on a request string can be a red flag
indicating an incorrect citation.  Although I take great pride in
filling something others before me were unable to,  there are days when
I also feel it's better to pass the request on down the string after a
superficial hunt to correct an incoming citation than to sit on it &
discover the correct source (I do notify the borrowing library what
steps I took to find the correct citation--generally in a personal
email, but sometimes in a conditional response).

Peace,
Robyn (Clark-Bridges)
ILL Assc. & PM Supervisor
Library, Mount Mercy College (UIW)
Cedar Rapids, IA 
work phone:  319-368-6465 
fax number:  319-363-9060
work email:  rclark at mtmercy.edu

On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 11:57 AM, Potapoff,Jason <JPOTAPOF at nait.ca>
wrote:

I agree.  It is not only inconsiderate for the other libraries that will
have to process the request but it is inconsiderate for the ILL person
who made the request. I know if I make a request where the citation is
wrong I would really appreciate being told that the citation is wrong
and not just be given a no without a reason (or an inaccurate reason
like No, do not have).  I want to know if the citation I have is wrong
so I can try and get a correct citation to avoid continuing to use a bad
citation when requesting the item from other libraries.   I may not be
able to tell that the citation is wrong when I get it (how would I
unless it is incomplete or for articles that do not match the citation
when I double check it in a database). Or it could be something as a
simple I made a typo when I made the request (I know I should catch
those when I double and triple check the request before I send it but
sometimes they still slip through).

Knowing that the citation wrong makes it more likely that the correction
can be made and result in a successful ILL after all instead of having
to tell the patron that there are no libraries that can lend the item.

Jason Potapoff
Interlibrary Loans Technician - NAIT Library
P 471.8780   

-----Original Message-----

Message: 16
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:50:55 -0400
From: "Breedlove, W Stephen" <breedlov at lasalle.edu>
Subject: [ILL-L] USING THE CONDITIONAL
To: "ill-l at webjunction.org" <ill-l at webjunction.org>
Message-ID:
       <D314B6C80B0A744F813C5E8254C0B98B0A422F998F at mail-srv.email.local>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

The people that should see this message are probably not on this list.

Please conditional a request that has an incorrect citation.  Don't say
NO and let it go to the next library who will spend time on it
needlessly.

Yesterday, we processed two requests that had bad citations.  We were
the last library in the five-symbol string on both requests.

What appalled me about the above two requests was that the first library
must have seen that they were bad citations, said NO, the second library
saw they were bad citations, said NO, the third library saw that they
were bad citations, said NO, the fourth library saw that they were bad
citations, said NO, and they came to us, the fifth library.  We spent
time on the requests, saw that they were bad citations and set the
requests to CONDITIONAL indicating "check citation."  If the first
library had done this, a lot of staff time at four other libraries would
not have been wasted.

This happens quite frequently.  It is rude and inconsiderate of your ILL
colleagues.

W. Stephen Breedlove
Reference and Interlibrary Loan Librarian
La Salle University Library
breedlov at lasalle.edu
215-951-1862

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Peace,
Robyn (Clark-Bridges)
ILL Assc. & PM Supervisor
Library, Mount Mercy College (UIW)
Cedar Rapids, IA 
work phone:  319-368-6465 
fax number:  319-363-9060
work email:  rclark at mtmercy.edu

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