Planning And Marketing For A Campus Document Delivery Service

Planning and Marketing for a Campus Document Delivery Service: The ODUM Express Experience at Valdosta State University Factors that prompted its development • The realization, when cancelling requests in ILLIAD and sending them back to faculty members because they were found on the shelves in the library, that these could have been sent out via a campus document delivery service. After all, we were actually checking the shelves to see if books or journals were on the shelves before returning the requests, so why not go one step further and deliver them? • Having too many books on the shelves that faculty members failed to pick up, or that we had to repeatedly notify them to pick up. • Getting queries from individual faculty members, who had worked at schools which offered document delivery services, about why we did not offer a similar service. • Construction on our campus that has reduced parking, as well as rezoning of some streets around our campus to go in one direction, had reduced accessibility to our campus and availability of parking even as late as midnight. • Concern about our visibility as an information resource on campus, since faculty are less likely to visit the library due to increasing amounts of information being available through the internet. We wanted to remain an important player in the game. Initial planning • A literature search was conducted, and though some useful articles have been written about using the document delivery module of ILLIAD to provide articles to faculty, staff, and students, nothing recent has been done on the topic of a physical campus delivery service. The most relevant article I found was: Stevenson, Marsha. “Design options for an on-campus document delivery program”, College and Research Libraries News, May 1990, pp. 437-440. • Queries were posted on both ILL-L and ILLIAD listservs. In some cases I followed up with additional e-mails to particular libraries whose responses were especially useful, or whose size was similar to ours. • Checking out publicly information about such services on other libraries websites, which was useful for helping to determine a number of issues, including the name for our service. Decision making • What departments would be involved: Access Services and ILL • Staff jobs and workflow issues: see handout, Document Delivery Service Workflow • Who would be served: faculty, administration, and staff, but not graduate assistants • How requests are accepted: all requests are submitted via ILLIAD. We do not accept requests over the phone, e-mails, or lists. • How material would be delivered: on foot to main part of campus, on shuttle buses to further reaches of campus. To help determine areas of campus, I created a regional directory of the campus by areas, buildings, floors, and departments, to efficiently route deliveries. See handout, Locations of Academic and Other Department Offices Most Likely to Use Campus Document Delivery Services for Faculty and Staff

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What materials would be delivered: any returnables from our collection that a user could check out on their ID card, GIL Express books, and ILL books. Articles from our own collection would be scanned and delivered via ILLIAD’s document delivery module. Reference books would be loaned for limited periods, but bound journals would not be loaned. Where to deliver to: departmental office where the secretary and the mailboxes are. What is the turnaround time for a request: since we had no idea how popular the service would be, we initially stated 24-48 hours during weekdays. At the present time, we are managing same day delivery for most requests, unless they are placed very late in the day. However, we continue to state the 24-48 hour time since it does give us a cushion for growth. Charges: no charge for delivery of materials. Articles from our collection are free. We pass along any lending charges we receive for ILL materials, but last year those constituted only 3% of all ILL requests. Minor issues: no deliveries if it is raining. No signing sheet on delivery.

Publicity • Designed ODUM Express flyer. During fall 2006 I made appointments with all heads of academic departments to call on them and their secretaries to explain the program, distribute the flyer, and to explain to the secretaries what we expected of them in terms of receiving the books, putting them in faculty and staff mailboxes, and then receiving them back from patrons to put in milk crate supplied by us to await pick-up when a student returns; they can also contact us if they need a pick-up. (See memo: Odum Express— new campus document delivery program I also designed a sheet for them titled The Lighter Side of Odum which highlights some of the public library materials we have in our collection and how to search them, so as to give them a reason for wanting to use the system also. • During the last week of fall term and the week before classes started in January, I began delivering the milk crates to some of the academic departmental offices around campus. The crates have a small space on the front that allows a label to be affixed reading: Odum Express, with our phone and e-mail address. • Two days before classes began, I went to the post office with a mass mailing of the Odum Express flyer that was delivered all faculty, administration, and selected staff. • On January 8, the day of the launch, I sent out messages to the campus faculty and staff listservs. Results • There has been a 46% increase in all ILL requests by faculty members over a comparable four month period last year and a 70% increase in article requests alone from the faculty. See Faculty ILL Increase Rates: Spring 2006/Spring 2007 • We are getting requests from departments which never did business with us before. • Faculty and staff make a special point of telling people who work all over our library how much they love the service. • Quotes: “Service above and beyond the call of duty”—Dr. Xavier McClung, Adult and Career Education. “Superb service”—Dr. Yahya Mat Som, Adult and Career Education. “What a great service! THANKS!!” Dr. Mary Ellen Dallman, Early Childhood/Reading.

Denise Montgomery, Odum Library Valdosta State University [email protected]