RESOURCE SHARING AT THE CROSS ROADS IMMEDIACY THROUGH THE SHARING OF ARTICLES: THE CASE OF WORLDSHARE ILL

Jenny Raubenheimer

Content

1. Main definitions

2. Background information

3. Research methodology

4. Findings

5. Conclusion

Introduction

• Is your library’s interlibrary loan services at a cross road?

• Shift in user expectations towards service delivery due to technological developments- is our approach still relevant?

• ‘Rapid’ means ‘quick’/ ‘swift acted’ or ‘completed in a short time’ (Concise Oxford dictionary 1982:857)

• Timeous’ delivery ‘timely’ is defined as seasonable, or opportune (Concise Oxford dictionary 1982:1121).

Introduction

• Immediacy

- A concept ‘pertaining to the time current or instant …

occurring without delay or lapse in time, done at once;

instant’ (Tomlinson 2007);

- Without intervention of middle term/ separated by any

intervening medium/

- Nearest/ next/ occurring at once/ without delay/

immediate reply (Concise Oxford dictionary (1982:498)

Background

• South African Interlending situation is dominated by the tertiary education sector in the higher education landscape

• Higher Education growth 2006-2011:From 741380 to 938200 studentsPostgraduate: 111237-148035

• Need for inter-library loans – mostly books

Research questions

• What are the expectations of our clients ito turn around

time?

• Why have our library clients developed a sense of

immediacy?

• Do we respond to the expectation of immediacy with regard to interlibrary loans (books) and more specifically copied articles?

Methodology

• Literature study• Supplier information (statistics)

Findings

• Expectations of our clients ito turn- around time

• Sense of urgency/immediacy

• Response to the need for immediacy through Worldshare ILL

Expectations of our clients ito turn- around time

• Survey amongst heads of Interlending departments in South Africa

• Response of participants indicated that their clients expect to receive the request in – 1-2 days =27%– 3-7 days =59%– more than 7 days=14 %

• Observation at the Lending desk-– why must I wait so long?– What created this mindset of immediacy?

Why interlibrary loan clients’ developed a perception of immediacy Immediacy in the everyday environment

Immediacy in the everyday environment

• services at shops• shift in commercial interactions• digital photography• speed dating• shift in consumer demand from mere

possession to speed in delivery• e-learning

African undersea cables

Interlibrary loan clients’ perception of immediacy

Immediacy in the library environment

•Shift towards mobile library services

-Access to information via the catalogue and other library

services

- Access to Reference services (RefWorks)

Immediacy in the library environment

Immediacy in the library environment

Download:• Apple: i-store• Android-play store

(samsung/nokia/huawei etc)• Blackberry: http://libanywhere.com/m/917

Immediacy in the library environment

• Access to other electronic resources are

provided such as

• E-books

• E -reserves

• Educational resources

Immediacy in the library environment

• Access to discovery tools

• Full text information data bases

• Institutional repositories in South African academic libraries/ ranked against that of the world ito size/ visibility/ files rich/scholarly value; theses(D-space)

Expectation through usage

• Downloads- ResearchGate

• Online visitors profile

• Number of sessions/ session duration

• Number of page views

Online Visitor’s Profile Apr 2014-July 2015

AirPAC Encore Dspace0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

51 51.6

82

49 48.4

18

New VisitorReturning Visitor

% o

f vi

sito

rs

Unisa Library Audience Overview: Number of SessionsApr 2014-July 2015

AirPAC Encore Dspace0

20000

40000

60000

80000

100000

120000

101911

87264

35776

To

tal

nu

mb

er o

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ns

Unisa Library Audience Overview: Average Session Duration

AirPac Encore Dspace0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

3

6

3

Min

ute

s sp

ent

per

ses

sio

n

Unisa Library Audience Overview: Page Views over period

(Jan 2014-Aug 2015)

AirPAC Encore Dspace0

50000

100000

150000

200000

250000

300000

350000

400000

450000

500000466191

424755

29842

To

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pag

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iew

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Response to the need for immediacy through Worldshare ILL

• Developments in ILL

• Interlending in South Africa has mirrored international developments right up to OCLC’s Worldshare ILL

• Established in South Africa since August 2013

• Growth in use of this system – 25 libraries

• Benefits experienced in general by academic libraries in South Africa

Worldshare ILL

Response to the need for immediacy

• Expansion of interlibrary loan capabilities• Centralises workflows that were previously managed by

multiple systems• Functionality that ensures faster fulfilment of

interlibrary loan requests • Saves staff and user time• Integrated discovery and delivery solution (for electronic,

digital and print materials) from a single interface

Response to the need for immediacy

Response to the need for immediacy: Worldshare ILL

Books:• 52% of the responding libraries indicated that there is still a need for books

• Benefit from the discovery and location of information resources

• Use of WorldShare in South Africa in the first six months of 2015 (OCLC 2015)

Borrow count is down from 2314 (July-December 2014) to 2141 Jan-June 2015)-

(7,5%)

• Active libraries varying on a monthly basis from 21 – 25, much the same as in 2014

• While loan requests received in 2015 so far are substantial at 14 462, the low fill rate

is of concern with just 1476 requests filled. For borrows there have been 2576

requests filled from a total of 4427 requests initiated.

Response to the need for immediacy

• variety of formats

• larger files

• URL and password

• 5 downloads / 30 days

Use of Article Exchange

• Net-lender statistics

• 2014: 975 requested items were received

and supplied in one day

• 2015: 611 requested items were received

and supplied in one day

Response to the need for immediacy

• Receive articles

• Input to licence agreements

• Branding- are you the preferred supplier

• Networking

Conclusion

• Interlibrary loan services are essential

• Need for immediacy in ILL services

• Scope for more use of Worldshare ILL

• Article exchange must be used effectively