I am interested to know how other services manage their inter library loans
request service. Answers to any of the following questions and any
reasoning behind the answers would be very useful. I will summarise any
responses for the list.
1. Do all members of staff take ILL requests or just certain members of
staff and if so who?
2. Are ILLs dealt with on a particular floor or at a particular desk?
3.Do staff who take requests search any databases/catalogues such as
Amazon/BL/LINK catalogue at the time of the request to check likely
availability or is this all done away from the counter or after the
customer has left?
4. Once the requests have been taken, who deals with ordering or ILLing the
books?
Currently at Reading all staff on all (4) floors take requests. The
searching done on the counter varies. The librarians (on a rota basis)see
the ILLs first and make the decision whether to buy or borrow. ILL requests
are then passed to the reservations support team who administer requesting
the ILLs and deal with the books when they come in. We tend to ILL about
70% the requests and order 30% for stock.
Many thanks
Madeleine Bentley
Reading Libraries
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