Authors

Jacob L. Nash

Presentation Date

10-5-2015

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Description

OBJECTIVE To identify the effect of a new catalog and linking system, Worldcat Discovery, on usage and adoption of free Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery for patrons of a Health Sciences Library as well as the effect on use of the bound journal collection. METHODS Interlibrary Loan (ILL) and Document Delivery (DD) requests filled during the two periods of January - June 2014 and January - June 2015 were gathered and compared with each other. Bound journal usage was gathered for the same periods and compared to test if free DD increased use of the bound journal collection. RESULTS We observed a 116% increase in filled ILL requests (n=1500) and a 471% increase in filled DD requests (n=1290) by patrons during the first half of 2015 compared with the same time period during 2014. Bound journal usage measured by in-house use and checkouts decreased by 14% from 2014 to 2015, likely due to patrons requesting items through DD instead. Incorporating print DD fills into bound journal usage for the two periods, we observed a 37% increase (n=375) in the usage of the bound journal collection. DISCUSSION ILLiad and Atlas Systems work seamlessly with Worldcat Discovery to make requesting items simple by auto-populating the request form. Worldcat Discovery places Request' links on print journal records to facilitate requesting bound journal articles. Because Worldcat is an 'open system' our users can search for and identify books, journals, and articles that HSLIC does not own and request them. The spike in DD/ILL increased Copyright Clearance fees but not to a problematic level. These costs will be monitored going forward to ensure this program is sustainable. CONCLUSIONS Making ILL/DD a free, easy to use process has increased usage of the service while increasing usage of the bound journal collection at HSLIC. Worldcat Discovery has made requesting items via DD/ILL a seamless, few-click process for patrons. These findings have implications for Health Sciences Libraries that would like to increase adoption of ILL and potentially increase access to the bound journal collection.'

Document Type

Book

Keywords

Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery

Comments

This poster was presented at the 2015 South Central Chapter of the Medical Library Association meeting in Little Rock, AR.

Rights

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Increasing Access to Journal Literature Through Free Interlibrary Loan and Document Delivery: A Case Study with WorldCat Discovery

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