Sessions
PRESENTATIONS
Borrow all the e-things!?!
Jacob Fontenot, Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge
Resource sharing conversations about ebooks focus on lending. But as more libraries gain permission to lend, how should borrowers respond? Is it time to offer our patrons a choice between print and ebooks? If so, how do we manage their expectations? And can we scale-up ebook borrowing using systems not designed for it?
In 2023, a happy accident convinced the ILL unit at LSU Library to offer ebook borrowing to our patrons. We added an option to our request form... and the requests poured in. At this session, I will share how we implemented “ebook first” borrowing in ILLIAD and communicated the service to patrons. I’ll cover what we learned about our patron’s format preferences, and how we evaluated the service after two semesters. Please join us and share your own experience borrowing ebooks! Ebook lenders, please come us and tell us borrowers how we can help you!
In 2023, a happy accident convinced the ILL unit at LSU Library to offer ebook borrowing to our patrons. We added an option to our request form... and the requests poured in. At this session, I will share how we implemented “ebook first” borrowing in ILLIAD and communicated the service to patrons. I’ll cover what we learned about our patron’s format preferences, and how we evaluated the service after two semesters. Please join us and share your own experience borrowing ebooks! Ebook lenders, please come us and tell us borrowers how we can help you!
Crosslink: Resource Sharing system
Mark Sullivan, IDS Project
IDS Project's CrossLink is a middleware server-based solution that allows for discovery and availability lookups across multiple cataloging systems and provides a connection between the borrowing and lending libraries’ resource sharing systems, regardless of which types they are. This brokering system will allow libraries that have become siloed due to cost cutting and reduction in use of resource sharing systems to maintain services to their patrons while sharing their materials with other libraries
Here it is!? Debating document delivery practices
Renna Redd, Clemson University; Rosemary Humphrey, Kennesaw State University
In Summer 2023, academic resource sharing practitioners were surveyed on their document delivery services. The survey recorded institution size, focus, request management system used, ways and methods materials are delivered, how transactions are recorded, and gave space for comments. In a long-term research plan, the presenters plan to analyze this information to identify patterns in services, systems, and workflows as well as gather opinions regarding providing a pdf, providing a link, or simply canceling requests for electronically held items. In doing this, the researchers are hoping to determine best practices for document delivery services and contribute to a service standard across academic libraries. In this presentation the audience will learn the results of the survey and the presenters want to establish a broader conversation around improving workflows, how copyright, licensing, and staffing affect them, and how we define what good service to our patrons is.
ILL Best Practices Workshop: Optimizing your WorldShare ILL, Tipasa, or ILLiad service
Alena Miller, OCLC
Join us for a session where we’ll dive into a few ILL best practices tailored for library staff utilizing WorldShare ILL, Tipasa, or ILLiad. Whether you're a newcomer to ILL or a seasoned pro, this workshop is packed with valuable insights. Learn how to save time with IFM (ILL Fee Management), update your library's WorldCat and knowledge base holdings, effectively communicate your lending policies, and use smart fulfillment features to speed delivery to your library’s users. Bring your questions and join us for an educational session designed to enhance your ILL operations!
ILLuminating Data: Advocating for Outreach using Assessment
Emily Jacobson, Florida State University
Assessment and recognition of data trends is a well established topic for Resource Sharing, and cursory review of the literature reflects recurring insights. These insights, however, can be used for more than internal decision making. FSU Libraries conducted assessment with a goal of outreach in mind. This enabled the ability to advocate for in-person engagement opportunities for Resource Sharing.
Utilizing tools such as custom searches in ILLiad, Microsoft Access, and PowerBI, a presentation was prepared to share with colleagues at FSUL to justify a place at Graduate Orientation. During the assessment process, emphasis was given to fields that would provide the most insight for Subject Liaisons. This included breaking down request history by type of request, academic status and department. Findings included that Engineering Graduates represented the top requestors of 2023 and that top cancellation reason for all users, including faculty, was “Available at University Libraries”. This prompted discussion regarding patron usage, interaction, and comprehension of the library catalog and Resource Sharing services.
This presentation aims to highlight how assessment can be used to support outreach by developing data narratives. This data can create opportunities for collaboration cross-departmentally to improve instruction, increase awareness and aid understanding for Resource Sharing.
Utilizing tools such as custom searches in ILLiad, Microsoft Access, and PowerBI, a presentation was prepared to share with colleagues at FSUL to justify a place at Graduate Orientation. During the assessment process, emphasis was given to fields that would provide the most insight for Subject Liaisons. This included breaking down request history by type of request, academic status and department. Findings included that Engineering Graduates represented the top requestors of 2023 and that top cancellation reason for all users, including faculty, was “Available at University Libraries”. This prompted discussion regarding patron usage, interaction, and comprehension of the library catalog and Resource Sharing services.
This presentation aims to highlight how assessment can be used to support outreach by developing data narratives. This data can create opportunities for collaboration cross-departmentally to improve instruction, increase awareness and aid understanding for Resource Sharing.
INFORM, ENGAGE, OUTREACH: Promoting Resource Sharing Tools (and Other Services) in an Academic Library
Tammy Rimpsey, George Washington University; Iris Lee, George Washington University
Libraries provide valuable and costly resources to their patrons, but a lack of awareness or insufficient understanding of how to use resources can diminish their usefulness. What started out as a simple plan to explain how patrons might choose between traditional ILL and our local, unmediated consortium loan service evolved into a series of promotional events designed to inform, engage and reach out to students about the best practices for borrowing from other libraries. Promotional events not only provide an opportunity to explain how to use resource sharing tools, but also give library staff an opportunity to step out of unseen roles, showcase how they add value to the university community, and learn from direct engagement with patrons. This session will also provide tips to creatively design outreach initiatives, marketing strategies with intentional outcomes, and ways to assess the impact, popularity and success of outreach efforts.
Information Standards and ILL
Allen Jones, The New School
The ISO 18626 standard adapts older protocols (10160 and 10161) for inter-library lending and borrowing. The current version of the protocol supports returnables and some non-returnables operations. As digital lending becomes more mature, the protocol needs to include information previously not required (file format, circulation manager URL, financial transaction information, etc). I would like to discuss how software vendors, librarians, and other stakeholders can collaborate to build services on top of information exchange protocols. The presentation will show how the group arrives at a consensus, can sometimes partner to create proof of concept applications, and then deploy services that other vendors can use when implementing the new version of a standard or protocol. I will end by discussing how librarians can get involved as implementers and stakeholders in standards conversations to advocate for services they want, regardless of the software vendor or request management software. This differs from product voting, where a particular enhancement benefits a product community. Rather, this is advocating for a suite of services and applications that all interlibrary loan suppliers might be able to benefit from, regardless of their request management software.
Just Visiting: A Year with a Consortium as Visiting Program Officer
Courtney Taulbee, University of Kentucky; Rebecca Crist, Association of Southeastern Research Libraries
For the 2023-2024 academic year, the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) created the position of Visiting Program Officer for Expanded Resource Sharing. The purpose of this focused role was to explore ideas and opportunities within the changing landscape of resource sharing that would be beneficial at a consortial level. Courtney Taulbee, Head of Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery from the University of Kentucky Libraries, served in this position. The work was done jointly with Rebecca Crist, ASERL's Program Coordinator for Shared Collection Resources, who joined the organization in early 2023.
At this presentation, the speakers will discuss their work, experiences, and outcomes from this year-long endeavor. Additionally, they will share about the collaborative work performed by members the ASERL Resource Sharing Working Group and the Interoperability Working Group, along with those from the wider ASERL resource sharing community. There will be time for discussion and brainstorming on next steps and future pursuits of the ASERL resource sharing community.
At this presentation, the speakers will discuss their work, experiences, and outcomes from this year-long endeavor. Additionally, they will share about the collaborative work performed by members the ASERL Resource Sharing Working Group and the Interoperability Working Group, along with those from the wider ASERL resource sharing community. There will be time for discussion and brainstorming on next steps and future pursuits of the ASERL resource sharing community.
More to Share: Encouraging Honors Students to Try Green Open Access
Olivia Chin, University of Tennessee - Knoxville
When you've got some of the best research around, you want to share it! That's what the Honors capstone class wanted to do at the University of Tennessee - Knoxville. Enter the institutional repository, TRACE, and an opportunity for undergraduate students to learn about Green Open Access and how to self-deposit their manuscripts. Join Scholarly Communication Librarian Olivia Chin for a breakdown on how focused outreach can encourage underrepresented researchers to share their work.
Prison Mail: A Resource Sharing Model to Serve the Underserved
Erie Taniuchi, Georgetown University
[Pre-recorded and available at the end of the conference]
The Georgetown University Law Library in Washington, D.C. offers a national prison mail program that provides incarcerated individuals with copies of U.S. federal and state primary legal materials for free. In 2022, the program was integrated into the Law Library's interlibrary loan service to leverage the citation processing proficiencies and well-established document delivery workflows practiced by that service.
This presentation offers some essential steps to launch a prison mail service for resource sharing services to consider, covers legal citation style format, identifies free, authoritative web resources for primary law materials and provides practical tips to process requests from incarcerated people.
Adding a prison mail service could lead to professional development opportunities for non-law library staff to learn a unique legal citation style format and create confidence in answering similar legal text requests from their own patrons.
This presentation offers some essential steps to launch a prison mail service for resource sharing services to consider, covers legal citation style format, identifies free, authoritative web resources for primary law materials and provides practical tips to process requests from incarcerated people.
Adding a prison mail service could lead to professional development opportunities for non-law library staff to learn a unique legal citation style format and create confidence in answering similar legal text requests from their own patrons.
Same Song, Second Verse: Repurposing A Digital Repository
Todd Seguin, Western Kentucky University; Nancy Richey, Western Kentucky University
Our Special Collections library is widely known for its excellent historical and genealogical holdings. With the flourishing interest in the field of genealogy, we chose to repurpose a part of our online institutional repository, TopSCHOLAR. Nearly two-thirds of all items in the repository come from our Special Collections Library and University Archives, and many of the most popular are used for genealogical purposes. In this talk, we will look at what kinds of items are shared, and how the repository empowers the Special Collections Library’s outreach efforts. We will highlight some library and institutional goals that are addressed by making these collections available online. We will also discuss this repurposing and how it aids in resource sharing among libraries. We have increased access to rare information, improved the efficiency of library operations and enhanced and improved research opportunities.
Transforming Interlibrary Loan at East Tennessee State University
Jennifer Young, East Tennessee State University
East Tennessee State University implemented Rapido in May 2023 and has spent the past year learning how to navigate filling our patron’s requests while adjusting to a new interlibrary loan network. This presentation will discuss how ETSU adapted to a new interlibrary loan system that resulted in a significant increase in patron requests. Learn about the issues ETSU faced, the benefits we have seen from the transition, and discuss strategies for sharing resources between mixed resource sharing systems.
Using Alma APIs, SRU Lookups, and IDS Logic to Enhance Alma/ILLiad Integration
Bill Jones, SUNY Geneseo; Timothy Jackson, State University of New York
Sharing information between library systems can enhance the patron experience by increasing efficiency and turnaround time. This is especially true when users submit ILLiad borrowing requests for items held locally and readily available. During this session, presenters will share the code behind the new ILLiad Server Addon that sends hold requests and borrowing requests from ILLiad to Alma using the Alma Users API. Attendees will learn about the Addon’s enhanced functionality, including Alma Search Retrieval via URL (SRU) Lookup, ISBN validation, shelving location exclusions list, custom error routing, and custom Addon configuration. Attendees will experience a first-hand account of how the Addon has impacted workflows at the University at Albany, as well as gain insights from the SUNY consortial level about this Addon's potential impact on the library world.
(former title: The OCLC Resource Sharing Eclipse: Leveraging Alma APIs, SRUs, and Automation to Send Requests from ILLiad to Alma)
PANELS
Exploring Consortia Interoperability: Working Together to Improve Resource Sharing Mechanics
Courtney Taulbee, University of Kentucky; Rebecca Crist, Association of Resource Sharing Libraries; Amy Chew, University of Tennessee-Knoxville; Robyn Weisman, Vanderbilt University
As part of a chosen concentration on expanded resource sharing by the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) consortia, a working group was created in 2024 to focus on topics related to resource sharing and interoperability. Chaired by Robyn Weisman, Director of Resource Sharing Services at Vanderbilt University Libraries, this group has representation from various ASERL libraries and was tasked to explore issues that can serve both members within and outside of ASERL.
For this panel presentation, members from this group will speak of the experience and work performed and what they learned in this experience. Additionally, there will be time for engagement with the audience for further dialogue about the various experiences with and interest in interoperability as it impacts the wider resource sharing community.
For this panel presentation, members from this group will speak of the experience and work performed and what they learned in this experience. Additionally, there will be time for engagement with the audience for further dialogue about the various experiences with and interest in interoperability as it impacts the wider resource sharing community.
I Have a Question: An Ask Me Anything (AMA) Panel
Ashli Wells, Vanderbilt University; Rosemary Humphrey, Kennesaw State University; Renna T. Redd, Clemson University
Are you new to resource sharing or did you receive little to no training? Have you been too afraid to ask a question or do you not have anyone to contact when you are unsure of what to do? Are you familiar with the distinctions between CCL and CCG? Do you often wonder how others would handle a specific type of request or challenging patron? Well, wonder no more! Our panel of practitioners from different institutions with 30 years of combined experience is here to answer your questions.
This panel presentation will provide some tips, tricks, and explanations to successfully navigate the fulfilling world of resource sharing. A form has been made available for attendees to pre-submit their questions, though questions from the audience will also be welcomed during the session.
Next Generation Resource Sharing and the Future of ILL
Joe Gutekanst, Davidson College; Mark Sullivan, IDS Project; Charlie Barlow, Boston Library Consortium; Mark Paris, Brandeis University; Sebastian Hammer, Index Data; Tim Jackson, SUNY
Experts in the field of ILL meet to discuss the opportunities in the present time of resource sharing, the evolution that has occurred, and their vision of the ILL future.
Using smart fulfillment functionality to save staff time and maximize delivery speed
Ashley Cole, Eastern Kentucky University; Amanda Dembiec, Nashville Public Library; Sofiya Petrova Dahman, University of Memphis; John Raymond, Siena College; (Alena Miller, OCLC - panel organizer)
Libraries face increasing pressure to provide fast access to information as the expectations of students, faculty, and staff continue to grow. Our libraries are meeting these demands by providing requested resources with remarkable speed by using OCLC’s smart fulfillment functionality. Join us for a panel discussion on how we get resources into our library users’ hands fast and efficiently. Learn how we’ve automated ILL workflows, utilized real-time availability, and participated in OCLC’s Express digital delivery program. Discover how these automation tools not only enable fast delivery but also free up staff time to address more complex requests.
POSTERS
The Best of the Blues: Sharing Blues Collections in the Mississippi Library Partnership
Fawn Ussery, Delta State University
This poster will reveal the best blues titles housed in the Mississippi Library Partnership (MLP), highlight the value of local library collections, and hopefully drum up interest in one of the state's top exports. The Mississippi Library Partnership “is a consortium of libraries that share a library automation system as a means of increasing the sharing of resources, automation costs, and technical expertise.” The primary mission of the consortium, the only one of its kind in the state, is to “build a central database that provides patrons with easy access to resources from all of the member libraries.” Currently, according to the MLP website, library.msstate.edu/mlp, member libraries across the state provide access to more than 3.1 million titles. This poster will inspire those seeking a template for statewide resource sharing and hopefully not leave anyone feeling blue about their collections.
Giving Thanks: Expressions of Gratitude between Libraries
William Gee, East Carolina University: Arwen Parris, East Carolina University
Interlibrary loan and other methods of resource sharing are truly amazing and generous services that are perhaps too often viewed simply as “what we do” that we sometimes forget the magic that is lending our materials for free (or hopefully for not very much) to other institutions and getting our materials back – even to and from countries around the world. Some borrowing libraries are so grateful that they express their gratitude with notes of thanks, sometimes highly creative, themed, or simply a stamp on the lender’s paperwork. Receiving any of these kind expressions is such a lovely part of opening the stacks of packages we receive every day. This poster includes some examples we have received and tips on how we all can show thanks to our partner libraries for their generosity and their hard work to help us meet our patrons’ needs.
WorldShare ILL: OpenURL Request Form Setup in 4 Easy Steps
Alena Miller, OCLC
Do you want to just use your software without learning all the technical details to make it work? You're in luck! The new, OpenURL-based patron request form for WorldShare ILL is easy to set up and lets you create borrowing requests faster and easier than before. In this poster session, we’ll show you how! - The new WorldShare ILL request form can be configured from any discovery service's interface that supports OpenURL. - No more rekeying of requests. - Get the recipe for setting up the WorldShare ILL form for your patrons, making it simpler for them to submit requests. "