Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is an important service that is highly valued by faculty, students, and staff at UC Irvine. Providing access to information resources quickly and efficiently is an ongoing goal of the UCI Libraries. Internal factors such as budget cuts and reduced staffing and external factors such as the ease and affordability of on-demand purchases made the time ripe to investigate and improve interlibrary loan services.
A series of pilot projects involving staff from Access Services, Collections and Acquisitions were conducted to measure the cost of services, decrease time to delivery and improve workflow. These pilot projects included purchasing items on demand, using staff expertise in other departments to assist in processing foreign language ILL requests, using existing technology to enhance workflow, and using short-term loans available from publishers through patron initiated acquisitions.
Our objective is to show how a number of smaller projects can make a big difference. Attendees can expect to learn strategies to help change workflow using existing staff and resources, manage staff expectations and to hear about our victories as well as our defeats.