OCLC Resource Sharing Conference 2019

In the summer of 2016 we began our transition from ILLiad to Tipasa. ILLiad was a highly regarded and deeply loved program for our library staff. So, transitioning required a lot of examination in workflows, procedures, and processes. There were, of course, things we wish were different. However, there are many new and exciting opportunities that were available because of the transition. Many of which are loved by our internal staff and external faculty, staff, and students.

This presentation will cover the challenges in the transition, what we did to overcome them, and what was different in comparison to ILLiad. It will relate what we loved about ILLiad to what we love about Tipasa. It will cover new features that we use frequently, and enhancements that we hope for in the future. Overall, it will highlight our journey, communication, and complete experience now that Tipasa is our way of practice and ILLiad is a memory.

Within the session I would like to talk about how the University of Gloucestershire implemented and are now using Tipasa and the affects of this change. Some points to consider are;• Transition from WMS ILL to Tipasa, the benefits and lessons learnt • The usefulness of the configuration module when implementing Tipasa  • Targeted ILL as a way to enhance student satisfaction and access to resources e.g. our free ILLs for level 6 • This importance of ILL for an institution with a low resources budget – enabling research and supplementing our limited subscriptions (just in time vs just in case) • Improvements to our ILL service from working with international lending libraries • Our own trends in ILL since Tipasa, increased user uptake, easy to use interface when placing a request, cost-savings, improved ability to source items • ILL in the future – improvements and recommendations for Tipasa

This session will explore some of the benefits and challenges of ILL falling under the purview of a Reference Department, including:•Incorporating ILL as a part of instruction via one shot sessions, LibGuides, and virtual reference. (Psst, hey kids, check out this free to you service that can get you stuff…)•The benefits of having well-trained ILL staff conducting reference. (We can find all the things!) •The challenges of time management in a split Reference/ILL position. (Please don’t schedule me on the Reference Desk on a Monday. I have a gazillion ILL requests from the weekend.)•When ILL duties aren’t related to Reference. (Due dates, and billing, and acquisitions, “Oh My!”)•Handling non-specific requests that come in through the ILL system. (“I need whatever you can find on my obscure topic.”)Where other libraries’ ILL departments fall in their organizational structure: a review of past literature and recent survey results. Time will be allotted for a discussion among session attendees regarding their own institutions' organizational structure challenges and successes.

ILL staff, as well as library staff working at service points, have a great deal of anecdotal knowledge of the problems and points of confusions patrons encounter when placing requests, but turning that knowledge into useful data can be a challenge. In addition, a full picture of the patron experience must include not only data about the problems patrons experience, but also how library staff respond. This holistic view can help us ensure we are giving consistent information, facilitating hand-offs from the service desk to the ILL team at the right moments, and more. As part of an initiative to improve the user experience of our request services, NCSU Libraries spent three weeks in fall 2018 recording observations of patron interactions related to requested items at all service points in the libraries. This talk will present insights gained from this concentrated period of data collection, called a Service Insight Cycle, and how it has helped us develop proposed solutions as well as targeted questions for future user research. We will also discuss the Service Insight Cycle model, inspired by the software development process, which can be used to take a concentrated look at any service to identify opportunities for improvement.

Background: The University of Maryland Health Sciences and Human Services Library serves the schools of Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Social Work and the Graduate School. Within the HS/HSL, the Resource Sharing department, responsible for interlibrary loan (ILL), is staffed by 4 ½ FTE including a supervisor, specialist, and 2 ½ technicians. With the number of ILL requests fluctuating throughout the year, Resource Sharing staff has had time to enhance and learn new skills. 
Method: In 2011, the UMB Digital Archive became the responsibility of the Resource Sharing Department. Through multiple projects, staff developed new competencies including the ability to scan fragile and unique materials, project management skills for outreach initiatives, assessment expertise for judging the quality of digitized resources and quality control. The projects did not compromise ILL services. Projects include a collaborative effort with the Medical Heritage Library digitizing State Medical Society Journals from 1900-2000, the UMB CURE Scholars initiative, and lab notebook digitization.
Conclusion: The skills developed through the projects were underscored by continuous learning, good communication, and collaboration. Staff use these skills to continue contributing to outreach, curation, and digitization for the UMB Digital Archive. Resource Sharing responsibilities are now strategically allocated between ILL and archive activities.

Background: The Access and Delivery Services and Collection Development departments at the Cushing/Whitney Medical Library have a cooperative relationship in terms of incorporating statistical ILL data into collection decisions. Budget pressures resulting in journal cancellations have made the need for data-driven decision making more acute. A question arose as to how accurately ILL statistics for journals reflect scholars’ needs in relation to library collection building. Objective: The researchers hope to determine if borrowing statistics after the cancellation of a subscribed journal reflected the same level of use compared to prior to cancellation. Methods: The researchers gathered ILL borrowing statistics for a control list of titles cancelled in fiscal year 2017/2018 and analyzed them against COUNTER JR1 statistics for the same period of time to determine if interest in a journal remained consistent post-cancellation. Results: This study’s preliminary results indicate that ILL borrowing statistics are significantly lower than anticipated based on documented usage. These results indicate that potential users are not taking additional steps to obtain articles through ILL that the library no longer subscribes to. Outcome: Statistical data with no context cannot reliably capture user behavior and librarians should consider the incomplete nature of these metrics when anticipating user need.

After 20 years of saying no to any kind of interlibrary loan sharing, how do you convince a branch library to swing the pendulum in the opposite direction and say yes to interlibrary loan requests? What sort of information do you need to demonstrate to your librarians and library staff, that sharing your resources increases the use of your collection with little to no impact on your patrons? We did it, and we can show you how we gathered statistics and other compelling information to make our case.