Cutting Out the Middleman: Patron-Initiated Interlibrary Loans - Southern Illinois University library - Abstract

Library Trends, Summer, 1998 by Barbara G. Preece, Thomas L. Kilpatrick

ABSTRACT

The interlibrary loan process at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, has undergone a major redesign since the late 1980s. Central to the redesign has been a move toward empowering patrons by providing them with choice and responsibility. In 1994, the library began facilitating unmediated borrowing from the forty-eight other members of a statewide library consortium through a shared online union catalogue and circulation system to enhance service to its users. The elimination of intermediary steps has reduced turnaround time significantly and contributed to increased patron satisfaction. The authors will explain the forces that prompted the redesign, the use of technology, and the impact on staffing.(*)

INTRODUCTION

Interlibrary loan (ILL) is a phenomenon of the twentieth century, with the majority of its growth and development as a legitimate library service occurring within the last thirty years. Until recently, traditionalists believed that a library should provide materials for its clientele through purchase, if possible, resorting to borrowing from neighboring libraries only as a last resort. The National Interlibrary Loan Code ("Revised Code," 1940) reflects this less-than-liberal approach to borrowing, referring to interlibrary loan as a privilege and limiting it to researchers and scholars. This approach prevailed until changing methods and ideologies finally brought ratification of a liberalized code in 1980, which was further liberalized in 1993 (National Interlibrary Code, 1980, 1993).

Several factors together influenced libraries to make this change in ideology. The first was a substantial increase in the volume of publishing that occurred at a time when library funding could not keep pace. Libraries could no longer afford to purchase everything that their patrons wanted or needed. A second factor was the introduction of technology into the interlibrary loan process that increased efficiency in document delivery and reduced turnaround time to an acceptable level. Finally, the introduction of end-user searching of online catalogs, full-text databases, electronic journals, and the growth of commercial document supply services has made materials more accessible than ever before.

Morris Library at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (SIUC), is representative of hundreds of libraries that have experienced phenomenal growth in interlibrary loan and document supply in recent years. Morris Library is a comprehensive research facility organized into four subject divisional libraries and an Undergraduate Library. It contains more than 2 million volumes and over 12,000 current journal subscriptions with access to numerous CD-ROM and online resources, multiple points of access to the Internet, and state-of-the-art projects in document imaging and distance learning.

Statistics show the phenomenal growth in interlibrary loan at Morris Library in just thirty-two years. In fiscal year 1964 (the first year that ILL records were kept), Morris Library processed 399 interlibrary loan borrowing and lending requests. ILL processing at that time was performed by the director's secretary. By fiscal year 1996, the number had risen to 88,521 filled requests including lending and borrowing. Staff had increased to one professional, five paraprofessionals, and 200 hours of student help. How has Morris Library coped with these phenomenal increases? Certainly, an increase in staff has helped, but other significant changes have had to be made as well. In the 1960s, the TWX was considered cutting-edge technology, and ILL departments across the nation, including Morris Library, adopted it as their own. In the early 1980s, OCLC's ILL sub-system revolutionized ILL, followed soon by fax and ARIEL. In each case, Morris Library implemented these technologies. Today remote access to other libraries' OPACs is being used by a growing number of libraries to speed the interlibrary loan process and deal effectively with the growing volume of borrowing. Again, Morris Library is on the cutting edge. Ironically, as each improvement in ILL access is made, ILL volume increases to negate any relief.

NAILDD PROJECT

The North American Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery (NAILDD) Project (Association of Research Libraries, 1994) introduced in 199:3, addressed the issue of maximizing access to resources while minimizing costs. More specifically, it called for libraries to redesign interlibrary loan and document delivery processes by improving mediated services and introducing unmediated services in a networked environment. It was suggested that libraries could achieve this goal by:

* developing an environment in which users may exercise choice and responsibility;

* serving as a resource for comprehensive collections; and

* providing a gateway to services of other libraries and information providers.

The NAILDD Project designers realized that technical assistance is needed to support this environment, along with a comprehensive interlibrary loan package designed to serve libraries and their patrons. Many libraries began to review local interlibrary loan processes by asking their staffs to envision the "ideal" interlibrary loan environment. By identifying the elements in this scenario, libraries began to successfully reengineer the interlibrary loan process.