Let It Go:How to Revise Your

Resource Sharing Policies & Open Up Your Library

Collections for ILL Lending

Tom Bruno

Yale University

About that title…

Worst Theme Ever?

Should have kept his day job…

Better?

Besides, there’ll always be the sequel!

Overview

• Why Lend? i.e., The Circle of Resource Sharing Karma

• The Importance of Best Practices in ILL Lending

• Advocating for Broader Lending Policies

• Resource Sharing and the Future of Libraries

My Goal

I promise no karaoke, but hope many of you decide to change your tune about your ILL Lending policies!

Also, apologies for the earworm…

(…and for this one, in advance!)

FINAL DISCLAIMER

• I, too, am a sinner

• I’ve been trying to repent

• It’s never too late, and every little bit helps!

A song of fire and… fire

…or a librarian!

The Oldest Profession

• As long as libraries have existed, there has been ILL

• Earliest recorded instance of ILL goes back to the reign of Ptolemy III “Euergetes” (246-222 BC) of Alexandria

• Ptolemy borrowed the collected works of Euripides, Sophocles, and Aeschylus from the Athenians

• Athens demanded a deposit of 15 silver talents = $300,000

• The Great Library kept the originals and sent back copies, forfeiting their deposit

Lessons learned?

• ILL Lending is not for the faint of heart!

• Sometimes things are going to go wrong-instead of letting it deter you, learn from your mistakes to assess/enhance/improve your services

• Lending may confer many practical benefits, but sharing is always its own good

Why Lend?

• One library can not own everything- ILL has evolved from supplement to cornerstone of collection development strategy

• Cancelled or Expired Requests Mean People Dropping You From Their Lending Strings

• Fewer Lending Requests = Less Work for Staff, Less Lending Revenue, Less Willingness to Assist You With Special Requests

Billy S. = Worst ILL Librarian EVER

Don’t forget the Karma!

• By sharing your resources with other libraries, you are helping to foster a sense of community

• More libraries willing to trust each other and share AROUND THE WORLD!

It’s almost like… some kind of circle…

Enter My Simba Twice?

(Curse you, OCLC, for ruining a good joke!)

Best Practices in ILL Lending

• It’s easier to make a case for expanding your Lending if your ILL operations are already efficient and transparent

• Check your OCLC statistics- how many of your requests “age out” or expire to the next lender?

• When you cancel requests, what are your major Reasons for No?

Strategies for Opening Your Collections

• Opening up collections may seem like a practical decision for you, but it is often perceived as a political decision by others

• Try to understand your nay-sayers’ motivations in order to allay their fears

• Your toolkit= your peers, your own customers, your data

Advocating for Broader Lending Policies

• Look to your peers!

• Your resource sharing colleagues may have already presented or published about their own experiences in opening up local collections or formats

Example: A/V At U of D

• Megan Gaffney's excellent analysis of making A/V materials eligible for ILL Lending at the University of Delaware Libraries:

• https://www.atlas-sys.com/conference2012/presentations/Lending%20Audiovisual%20Materials%20on%20ILL.pdf

Gather anecdotes/encouragement from your lending partners

• Co-opt your critics into your allies

• Record each time you do or don’t make a special exception to your lending rules

• Demonstrate the cost to your organization (staff and $$$) to saying “no” or making special arrangements every time

Don’t forget Murphy’s Law!

• The chances of a “special” request going wrong are much higher than during the processing of a normal ILL Lending request

• If something does go wrong, don't be afraid to leverage this failure as ammunition for opening up these requests to your normal Lending workflows!

Make Your Case With Data

• Are your Collection Development librarians concerned about loss rates?

• Most ILL Lending has a much lower lost item rate than regular circulation to your own patrons

• Highlight the role of resource sharing in the overall circulation statistics for items in your library collection.

Bro, do you even pivot table?

• IMPORTANT: Be sure you are familiar with your own ILL data before trying to convince others to open up your library’s collections

• Even willing participants will require some form of assessment

• Know your data so that it tells the story you want it to tell, when you need to tell it!

Other Considerations- Books

In other words, “Let it go…”

• If you’re going to let it go in the first place, make sure the patron can actually use it!

• Remember that a lot of a shorter loan period is eaten up by processing and shipping

• Longer loan periods= fewer renewal requests

• Even in the case of renewals, why not renew unless the item has been held/recalled?

Considerations for Loaning Microfilm

• More is more- patrons are usually working their way through entire runs of a serial

• If you loan, consider loaning everything at once instead of following your normal item limit for ILL

• Saves you and the borrowing library from managing multiple orders!

• If shipping is a factor, consider charging full cost for one-time shipping

“It’s on micro-WHAT?”

Considerations for Loaning A/V

• Is the movie scheduled? Frequently used in the last few months?

• Can it be replaced? What would the replacement cost be? Should it be dark archived before lending (yes, you can do this)?

• Are there licensing restrictions? – mainly artists’ films and motivational titles

Considerations for Loaning E-Resources

• Check your licenses to see if you’re allowed to lend

• Work with your Collection Development or e-Resource librarian to negotiate better licenses

• Remember, license trumps copyright law, but if your license is silent you may be able to lend!

Going International

You Are An Ambassador!

1. To your own patrons

2. To other libraries3. To other nations

(Yes, my students photoshopped this. Aren’t they awesome?)

The A, B, C’s of International ILL Lending

Accept multiple forms of payment:

OCLC IFM, IFLA Vouchers, Credit Cards, etc. Make it as easy as possible for international libraries to pay

Be willing to lend!

Consider your international borrowing partners when designing your library portal and ILL webpages

Other International Lending Considerations

• Use a method of shipping which you can INSURE AND TRACK (HINT: Most International ILL borrowers are willing to pay extra to defray your shipping costs)

• Customs: If you are shipping to a country with “tricky” customs practices (cough coughCanada), be sure you mark your packages appropriately

Just Do It!

• By sharing your resources with international libraries, you are fostering a sense of international community

• More libraries willing to trust each other and share AROUND THE WORLD!

Resource Sharing and Future of Libraries

• Some have branded ILL “a necessary evil”, a failure of local collections to meet library patrons’ needs

• The reality of course is that no one library can ever meet the information needs of all of its patrons

One collection, one community

This is your Lorax moment

• Consider Alexandria and the Ancient Athenians

• What would have happened to those tragedies if Athens hadn’t loaned them to Egypt?

• The modern resource sharing ecology is robust yet fragile at the same time

Postapocalyptic ILL Lending?

Questions? Comments? Karaoke?

THANK YOU CONNECTICUT!

Tom Bruno

Associate Director for

Resource Sharing and Reserves

Yale University Library

tom.bruno@yale.edu

Twitter: @oodja