ARL study confirms effectiveness of user-initiated ILL/DD services

Citation

(2005), "ARL study confirms effectiveness of user-initiated ILL/DD services", Interlending & Document Supply, Vol. 33 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilds.2005.12233aab.013

ARL study confirms effectiveness of user-initiated ILL/DD services

Washington, DC – user-initiated interlibrary loan (ILL) and document delivery (DD) operations provide better service than mediated ILL/DD services. In most cases, user-initiated services have lower unit costs, higher fill rates, and faster turnaround times than mediated services. These are some of the major findings of a two-year study of ILL/DD services in 72 North American research, college, and government libraries conducted by Mary E. Jackson of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The findings are reported in Assessing ILL/DD Services: New Cost-Effective Alternatives, forthcoming from ARL publications.

User-initiated services are defined, for the purpose of the study, as requests that do not require ILL staff to handle or process them, but are received directly by a potential supplier. Those included in the study are: ILLINET Online, INN-Reach, Loansome Doc, RAPID, URSA, and user-initiated commercial document delivery. In addition, the study measured the performance of local document delivery services.

Mediated ILL/DD operations have improved since the 1996 ILL/DD performance measures study also undertaken by ARL. When adjusted for inflation, borrowing and lending unit costs in research libraries have decreased nearly 20 per cent, and borrowing turnaround time has been reduced by 50 per cent.

Colorado State University emerged as the high-performing, mediated borrowing operation and the University of Minnesota, the University of Alberta, and the University of Illinois at Chicago Health Sciences Libraries are the three high-performing mediated lending operations. The report details characteristics of high-performing operations and lays out strategies for how libraries can improve local performance that center around increasing the use of user-initiated services, and improving mediated services by reducing turnaround time, and using appropriate staffing levels. For further information on the study, see http://www.arl.org/stats/newmeas/

Order information: Assessing ILL/DD Services: New Cost-Effective Alternatives Mary E. Jackson, with Bruce Kingma and Tom Delaney 2004; ISBN 1-59407-657-X; 154 pp.; $70

Shipping and handling: US: UPS Ground, $10 per publication; Canada: UPS Ground, $15 per publication; International and Rush Orders: Call (301) 362-8196 or e-mail pubs@arl.org for quote.

Order from: ARL Publications Distribution Center, PO Box 531, Annapolis Junction, MD 20701-0531. Tel: (301) 362-8196; Fax: (301) 206-9789; E-mail: pubs@arl.org; Web: www.arl.org/pubscat/order/