Document Delivery Service Workflow

Document Delivery Service Workflow I.

Articles. A. Article requests will be received in ILLIAD and reviewed by the ILL Librarian to see if they fall into one of the following three categories: 1. Articles which are available as PDF files in our databases or on the internet will be returned to the requestor with location provided so they can retrieve it themselves, since 9.4% of all borrowing requests last year were found in these sources. 2. Articles which are not in our collection or not available as PDF files in our databases or on the internet will be requested via interlibrary loan. 3. Articles which are held in the library’s collections will be pulled by Circulation staff, scanned by ILL staff and sent out to faculty and staff like document delivery articles are currently processed for our off-campus students. Since we currently have no idea what kind of volume this service will generate, we are stating a 24-48 hour turnaround time for the service.

II.

Books A. Book requests will be received in ILLIAD and reviewed by the ILL Librarian to see if they fall into one of the following two categories: 1. Book requests which are indicated as available in our library will be transferred to the document delivery module, pulled from the shelves for processing, and checked out at the Circulation Desk. If a requested book is missing from the shelves, the request will be converted to an interlibrary loan request. 2. Book requests that are not owned by our library will be processed as interlibrary loan requests. B. GIL Express books will be checked out by the Circulation Department to the patron’s ID number and brought over to the ILL Department for delivery. C. Once books in our collection have been pulled and checked out by the circulation department and ILL books have been received, books in categories B and C will be ready for delivery.

D. Circulation will provide student assistant who will make deliveries twice daily to departmental offices, two hours in morning and two hours in afternoon. Since there is more frequent shuttle bus service to North Campus in the morning, it might be best to schedule any runs to North Campus in the morning. Phys-Ed building and Continuing Ed will also need to be accessed by bus, but most other locales can be done on foot. I have looked through various supply catalogs, but the most likely item for transporting books appears to be the folding crate on wheels with a pull-up handle from Staples, which costs about $20.00. (I have one at home.) Since capacity is limited—probably 12-15 books will fit in it at a time—student may have to make more than one trip back to library during a shift. This is one of the reasons why a vehicle would be nice, especially if this service gets popular. E. When student assistant visits the departmental offices to deliver books, which will be placed in faculty mailboxes by the offices’ staff, the assistant will also pick up books left in a box we will provide to each department to bring them back to the library. In cases where a department needs material picked up, faculty or departmental secretaries can contact the ILL Office to ask for a pick up. ILL and Circulation staff will also be aware of overdue ILL and GIL Express material and can see about contacting faculty in order to schedule returns. (However, most users who get blocked usually see about getting their materials back ASAP in order to get the block cleared.) F. Since we currently have no idea what kind of volume this service will generate, we are stating a 24-48 turnaround time for this service.