scholarly journals Follow-Up Study on Free Document Delivery and Interlibrary Loan Service Demonstrates Customer Satisfaction and Generates Improvements

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Kathleen Reed
Keyword(s):  
Academic Library ◽  
Turnaround Time ◽  
University Libraries ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Interlibrary Loan ◽  
Document Delivery ◽  
Online Catalogue ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
Scanned Documents

Objective – Texas A&M University Libraries have delivered free documents and interlibrary loans for ten years via the Get it for me service. This study explores whether the needs of customers are being met, areas for improvement, acceptable turnaround times, why some resources are never picked up, preferred format and steps to obtaining resources, places searched before submitting a request, and whether users ever purchased resources after obtaining them through Get it for me. Design – Online questionnaire. Setting – Large academic library system located in Texas, United States. Subjects – Researchers used responses from 735 registered users of the Get it for me service (12% undergraduates, 49% graduate students, 21% faculty, 15% staff, 1% distance education, 2% other). Methods – The authors emailed all currently registered users of the Get it for me service (n=23,063) inviting them to participate in a survey. The survey ran for two weeks, with no follow-up emails sent. Main Results – The return rate of 3.18% (n=735/23,063) surpassed the participant goal to achieve a confidence level of 95%, with a confidence interval of 4%. Researchers found that 79% of respondents are satisfied with turnaround time, with 54% of respondents desiring items within three days. Expectations increased with position in the academy. Time is the significant factor in users not retrieving ordered items; items are no longer needed after deadlines pass or other related materials are found. Responses revealed that 55% of users prefer print to e-books, although 70% of participants would accept an e-book version if print is not available. Participants were evenly split between reading documents online and printing them to read offline. About one quarter of respondents bought or suggested that the library purchase an item requested via Get it for me. When participants encountered a problem, 55% of respondents would contact library staff and 45% would check the service FAQ. Of those that contacted staff, there is a 94% satisfaction rate. Overall, 95% of respondents checked the libraries’ online catalogue for availability, 83% looked in e-journal collections, and 74% checked Google or Google Scholar. Get it for me was complimented on its user-friendly interfaces and policies, and the money and time it saves its users. In terms of criticism, users requested better quality scanned documents, longer interlibrary loan times, and a PDF instead of a link when an article is found by staff. Conclusion – The author concludes that the document delivery and interlibrary loan services delivered by Get it for me are meeting the expectations of users, with 99% of respondents reporting that the Get it for me service meets or somewhat meets their needs. Areas that required improvement were identified and strategies put in place to improve service. This questionnaire can be applied to other libraries to assist them in learning about document delivery and interlibrary loan service users and their expectations.

Evaluating CALIS interlibrary loan and document delivery: the MML plan

2014 ◽  
Vol 42 (2/3) ◽  
pp. 92-97
Author(s):  
Xiaoxia Yao ◽  
Lijun Zeng ◽  
Qiang Zhu
Keyword(s):  
Performance Indicators ◽  
User Satisfaction ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Turnaround Time ◽  
Professional Staff ◽  
Service Performance ◽  
Evaluation Instrument ◽  
Interlibrary Loan ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Document Delivery

Purpose – This paper aims to report on the methodology and findings of the China Academic Library and Information System (CALIS) Model Member Libraries (MML) plan which evaluated the success of interlibrary loan and document delivery (ILL/DD) services among 71 CALIS member libraries. Design/methodology/approach – CALIS constructed an evaluation instrument consisting of a set of primary and secondary performance indicators, which were used to assess participating libraries in a number of areas such as the number of bibliographic holdings contributed to the union catalog, the number of qualified professional staff dedicated to ILL/DD, the amount of training provided for library staff and end-users, request volume, fill rate, turnaround time and user satisfaction. Findings – CALIS has implemented the evaluation with the purpose of better understanding ILL/DD service among its member libraries. The evaluation has achieved the expected targets and improved service performance as originally planned. The performance measures provide a basis for the MML to compare their ILL/DD service performance with another similar institution. Originality/value – According to the evaluation, the major objectives of MML on ILL/DD service are summarized.

scholarly journals Book Availability Revisited: Turnaround Time for Recalls versus Interlibrary Loans

2003 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 283-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Gregory ◽  
Wayne A. Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Phase 1 ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
Turnaround Time ◽  
Phase 2 ◽  
Interlibrary Loan ◽  
Reasonable Alternative ◽  
Local Institution ◽  
Timely Access ◽  
Average Turnaround Time

Librarians typically view interlibrary loan (ILL) as a means of providing access to items not owned by the local institution. However, they are less likely to explore ILL’s potential in providing timely access to items locally owned, but temporarily unavailable, particularly in the case of monographs in circulation. In a two-part study, the authors test the assumption that, on average, locally owned books that a patron finds unavailable (due to checkout) can be obtained more quickly via recall than via ILL. Phase 1 of this study establishes an average turnaround time for circulation recalls in a large academic library for comparison with well-established turnaround times for ILL borrowing transactions. In Phase 2, a more rigorous paired study of recalls and ILL compares the ability of each system to handle identical requests in real time. Results demonstrate that, under some circumstances, ILL provides a reasonable alternative to the internal recall process. The findings also underscore the need for more holistic, interservice models for improving not just access, but also the timeliness of access, to monograph collections.

scholarly journals The Impact of COVID-19 on the Use of Academic Library Resources

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth Sara Connell ◽  
Lisa Wallis ◽  
David Comeaux
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Libraries ◽  
Academic Library ◽  
University Libraries ◽  
Interlibrary Loan ◽  
Patterns Of Use ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Library Resources ◽  
Time Frames ◽  
The Impact

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted higher education, including academic libraries. This paper compares the use of library resources (including interlibrary loan, website and discovery tool pageviews, database use, patron interactions, etc.) at three university libraries before and after the pandemic. The latter part of the 2019 and 2020 spring semesters are the time frames of focus, although two control time frames from earlier in those semesters are used to determine how the semesters differed when the coronavirus was not a factor. The institutions experienced similar patterns of use across many metrics.

scholarly journals Measuring the Effectiveness of Queen Elizabeth II Library Document Delivery Operations Before and After the Implementation of Relais International’s Enterprise Document Delivery Software

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Warner
Keyword(s):  
Average Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Turnaround Time ◽  
Efficiency Measure ◽  
Interlibrary Loan ◽  
Research Libraries ◽  
Association Of Research Libraries ◽  
Document Delivery ◽  
Unit Costs ◽  
Before And After

Objective - To compare the performance of the Queen Elizabeth II Document Delivery operation before and after the implementation of Relais International’s Enterprise document delivery software. Methods - This paper employs methodology established in the Association of Research Libraries’ 1998 publication, “Measuring the Performance of Interlibrary Loan Operations” and repeated in ARL’s “Assessing ILL/DD Services: New Cost- Effective Alternatives,” published in 2004. In both studies, three measures were used to evaluate the efficiency of document delivery operations: fill rate, turnaround time and direct costs. Both studies offer ARL benchmark or mean scores for each efficiency measure. This paper compares Queen Elizabeth II Document Delivery (QEII/DD) scores for each efficiency measure with those reported in both ARL studies. Results - Data for the two periods under review, 1999-2000 and 2004-2005, indicate that Borrowing fill rates remained relatively stable, showing only a 3% drop in the latter year, while lending fill rates showed a significant increase (11%). Turnaround times for filled QEII/DD borrowing returnable requests were faster on average by 4.2 days or 24%. Turnaround times for QEII/DD non-returnable borrowing requests also show improvement: a filled non-returnable request was faster on average by 1 day or 12%. The average cost of a QEII/DD borrowing request has remained stable: $22.82 in 1999-2000 and $22.61 in 2004-2005. In contrast, the average cost of a QEII/DD lending request has increased slightly: from $11.08 in 1999-2000 to $13.12 in 2004-2005. Conclusion - Both the implementation of Relais document delivery software and the delivery of returnables (loans) by courier between consortium members have allowed the QEII/DD unit to post modest gains in both fill rates and per unit costs and more substantive gains in turnaround time.

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