Guiding Users to Unmediated Interlibrary Loan

Abstract

This article provides a practitioner's guide to marketing user-initiated borrowing at the point of need. By reviewing interlibrary loan book requests and manually transferring them to an INN-Reach consortial system, Link+, the University of Nevada, Reno Libraries were able to successfully market the service, deliver materials faster, and save staff time and money. The article provides a detailed explanation and analysis of this procedure. KEYWORDS Patron-initiated borrowing, library consortium, INN-Reach, Link+User-initiated consortial borrowing systems provide faster, easier, and more cost-effective access to materials than traditional mediated interlibrary loan. Persuading users to change their behavior from traditional requesting methods can be a significant challenge to successful implementation of a consortial borrowing system. Continuous marketing and systematic involvement by library staff may be necessary for users to realize the full potential of these services.The University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) joined the Link+ consortium in January 2004. The University Library-which is now housed with the campus Information Technology division in the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center-serves 17,000 graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, staff, and the Nevada community. The library collection includes more than one million volumes, 23,000 electronic journals, and hundreds of research databases. Unlike in some larger metropolitan locations, UNR is the only research institution in the city and is one of only two universities in the state. Due to this geographical isolation, users do not have easy, local access to resources outside their home libraries. Link+ provided vastly expanded resources and a new user-initiated model unfamiliar to staff and users.