Interlibrary Loan and Resource Sharing Products: An Overview of Current Features and Functionality

Citation

Morris, A. (2001), "Interlibrary Loan and Resource Sharing Products: An Overview of Current Features and Functionality", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 189-189. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilds.2001.29.4.189.1

This report is “intended to help ILL managers and library administrators to understand the differences among 23 products and their functionality, designed to support ILL operations in all types and sizes [of] libraries in the USA and Canada”. The information reported, which was current as of September 2000, is based on responses to a very detailed questionnaire to vendors, data obtained from Web sites and the author’s personal product knowledge.

The report has a short introduction that outlines the structure of the product descriptions and provides the readers with context about emerging vendor collaborations and partnerships, standards, how the interlibrary loan (ILL) environment is changing and what might happen in the future. Interestingly, the author reports that many libraries in the USA continue to maintain paper files even though they use a management software product!

Each product description contains an overview followed by sections on borrowing and lending functionality. The overview covers archiving records, creating and accessing records, customisation, interface support with external systems, patron‐initiated requesting, pricing, reports and statistics, support of standards, systems architecture, target audience, technical support, and training. The section on borrowing functionality focuses on authentication and authorisation, communication with patrons, copyright compliance, fines and fees, mediated and unmediated processing, patron and lender records and printing. This is followed with a review of the steps of the IIL process. The lending section is arranged in a similar manner with sub‐sections on borrowers’ records, fees and invoices, mediated and unmediated processing, and printing followed by a review of the steps of the lending process.

Most of the systems described in the report are designed for the US and Canadian markets where the ILL system is based largely on consortium‐based lending and sharing. This contrasts with the UK where the majority of libraries rely heavily on the British Library Document Supply Centre for their supply of ILL material. Nearly all the vendors state that their product is sold outside the USA but few state where. Of the 23 products perhaps less than half a dozen are well known in the UK: Aleph 500, GeoWeb OPAC, Innovative Interlibrary Loan, OCLC ILL Service and Virtual Document xXchange (VDX).

The report is easy to read and convenient for reference with its systematic use of sections and sub‐headings. Although no criticism of any product is made, no doubt the very detailed product descriptions will be invaluable for any library manager in the USA or Canada in the position of selecting a new ILL management system. The use of this report will probably save hours of time and frustration and reduce the possibility of making a costly mistake.