ILL librarian as Bibliographic Detective;

dealing with“difficult” ILL requests

Jan. 26th 2013SEANG-ILL ‘Peter’ Bae

Columbia University Library

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What is a “DIFFICULT” ILL request?

Difficult to find an OCLC record.

Difficult to find a lender.

A request from a “difficult” patron.

* Combination of all three above *

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What our patrons request?

Books, Journals, E-Books, Book

Chapters, Journal Articles,

Dissertations, Proceedings,

Patents, Newspapers

microfilms, microfiches, micro-

cards, CD, DVD, LP, Cassette

Tapes, Laser Disks, Ephemeras,

Patents, Papers, Reports,

Archival Materials, Software,

Dataset, Data Base, Pictures

and Sculptures.

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In what languages ?

Afroasiatic, Albanian, Arabic, Armenian,

Aymara, Azerbaijani, Bulgarian, Catalan,

Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English,

French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi,

Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Turkish,

Ottoman, Panjabi, Persian, Polish, Portuguese,

Russian,  Romanian, Slovenian, Spanish,

Tahitian, Tibetan, Turkish, Urdu, Yiddish .

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From Where?

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Some examples….

Pasquino. Carmina Apposita Pasquillo Anno M. D. Xiij. [Rome: Étienne Guillery & Ercole Nani, 1513.

Gosden, Chris, and Chantal Knowles. Possessing Culture: Museums, Anthropology And German New Guinea. Berg Publishers, 2006.

Hakim, Taufiq al-. Praksa au muskilat al-hukm. [Kairo]: Maktabat al-Adab, 1980.

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Why such demand ? New types of researches.

More Information available through the Internet : i.e. ever-growing Worldcat, Google and other search engines.

Because we are good at finding and getting things ; they trust us.

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An Illustrative StoryRahmeo, ZIF, “A New Caryophyllid Cestode Khawia Grypi ,,,etc ”, J. Iraqi Biol. Soc, 1992

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After six month of search, we received the article from Iraq via Australia.

However, the surprise was….

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Lessons and Question

Internet is a growing organism.

Do not underestimate traditional ways of communication.

Never underestimate person sitting another side of the network.

But, can we do this for every “difficult” request?

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ILL Librarians’ Dilemma We do not have staff trained well enough to handle those

difficult requests. No library school teaches ILL.

We do not have enough time to spend on all those difficult

requests.

All patrons are equal but those with difficult request may

need more attention and will appreciate more our efforts.

How to use our limited resources effectively to get fast and

successful results?

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How to find more time?(1) Use every possible time saving tools and automation

features

i.e. Direct Request, Worldcat Knowledge base, Purchase on Demand

Analyze the workflow to see if you can squeeze;

IDS Work Flow Toolkit is a great place to find new ideas.

http:// toolkit.idsproject.org

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How to find more time?(II)

Positive Cancellation; “we are cancelling now but …”

Do not afraid of cancellation. “Cancel” is not a TABU

word in ILL.

Cancelling a request, we can also see how much they need

the item.

If they need, they will contact you with more information.

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How to get more skills and knowledge(I) Updates on new technology and trends; Twitter, listserv, RSS

Staff training and ILL wiki to share the information.

Every difficult request provides a chance to learn.

“Weekly/Monthly Stumper Contest”

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How to get more skills and knowledge(II)

Get Help from outside ILL office and outside your institution.

The Slavic Reference Service - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign http://www.library.illinois.edu/spx/srs.htm

East Asian Gateway Service - University of Pittsburgh http://www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/eal/Gateway-Home.htm

Von Berg, Dana. “Collaborative Approaches to Resolving Difficult ILL Borrowing Requests: Using a Working Group and a Wiki for Knowledge Sharing.” Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Electronic Reserve 20, no. 5 (2010): 337–345.

Bean, Margaret H., and Miriam Rigby. “Interlibrary Loan—Reference Collaboration: Filling Hard-to-Find Faculty Requests.” Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Electronic Reserve 21, no. 1–2 (2011): 1–7.

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Inside ILL Librarian’s Toolbox

Citation Verification Check List or Guideline.

In-house Language Expert list.

Language tools; Foreign alphabet/number/Library glossary

chart.

ShareILL Wiki ; http://

www.shareill.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

Multilingual Glossary database—New South Wales State Library http://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/multicultural/glossary/

, خارجية مكتبات من 館際互借 إستعارة , 図書館相互貸借 , Fjernlån, Διαδανεισμοί, Kütüphaneler Arası Ödünç Verme, ספריתית בין השאלה

Multilingual Glossary of Terms —ACRLhttp://www.ala.org/acrl/aboutacrl/directoryofleadership/sections/is/iswebsite/projpubs/multilingual

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More Help ?

Extending the human network through your lending service; “I scratch your back and you will scratch mine.”

Volunteer ILL Stumper-Solver Group? Monitoring the questions from colleagues and answer within a limited amount of time.

Can we embed some of the tools into the common ILL management system such as ILLiad or Worldshare Platform?

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It is a cliché but still...

Crisis (difficult request) is a

chance to confirm the role of ILL

in the library.

--------------------“You empower us so much, and I think many people take

that empowerment you give to us for granted. Thank you,

forever and a day, for expanding my knowledge.” – from a

Happy ILL patron.

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Any Question?