Trends in Resource Sharing:
More than Just Numbers
Mary E. Jackson
Product Manager, Resource Sharing
Auto-Graphics, Inc.
NELINET 27th Annual Resource Sharing Meeting
June 1, 2007

Overview of Presentation
• Summarize a baker’s dozen emerging
resource sharing trends
• Some are being implemented; some are
more long term initiatives
• Comment on the implications for current
workflow, policies, and staffing
• Respond to your questions and
comments
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The Key Trend:
Resource Sharing is no longer
about library staff efficiency:
it’s about our users.
It needs to be..
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…As Easy as Google
(even with a Swedish interface)
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…As Fast as Netflix
5

…As Free as Music Downloads
6

…As Self-Sufficient as the
Grocery Store
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…As Comfortable as Borders
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1. Emerging Service Model
• Item not held locally, in use, or perhaps
just inconvenient to access – same
user-centered and barrier-free access
and ordering policies apply
• Circ. holds placed in one or more
shared or virtual catalogs
• If unfilled, requests move seamlessly to
mediated RS environment
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What do we call this Service?
User-initiated borrowing
Unmediated ILL
Unmediated resource sharing
Direct borrowing
Direct consortial borrowing
Circulation-based sharing
Extended circulation
Remote circulation
Enlightened resource sharing
Not your mother’s ILL?
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2. Seamless to the User:
Search, Find, Get
• Services available where they are
• Single search interface
• Single “I need this” button
• Invisible, reliable suppliers
• Fast, predictable delivery
• Consistent loan periods, no/low fees,
no/few rules
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3: Convenient
• To the user and the library
• RSS feeds, email notifications, cell
phone alerts, and other push
technologies to users
• Users select most convenient options
for delivery, notification, payment, etc.
• Libraries no longer use multiple
messaging systems
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4. Trust our Users
• 80% of Finns have library cards
• 63% of Americans have library cards
– ALA Campaign for America’s Libraries, 2006
• 50% of Australians, Swedes, and Norwegians
are members of a public library
• Loss rate is higher for
local circulation than
for ILL
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5. Ease of Use vs. Privacy
• Cookies to remember basic information
• More detailed information about user to
provide more customized service
– Preferences for delivery, payment, language, etc.
– Volume of ordering
– Tardiness level (average days late)
– Number currently on loan (RS and circ.)
– What user ordered within last 24 months
• User information deleted when requests
are completed
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6. Buy, Borrow, Recommend
15

Buy, Borrow, Recommend
Purchase
Options
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7. New Suppliers/Partners
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8. Suppliers Bid on Requests
• Libraries, Document Suppliers, and
Online Booksellers
• Ranking/evaluation of service based on
bidding volume, fill rate, and speed of
response
• Less differential between fees
• Better match between staffing and
processing capacity
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9. Material Delivered to the
Home or Office
• OCLC WorldCat Resource Sharing Pilot
Project
• National Library of Australia’s project
• Email notification of delivery
• Patron can track delivery
• Material returned in
reply-paid box or
envelope
19

10. Standards are Essential,
but Must be Invisible
• Z39.50
• OpenURL
• OpenURL Request Transfer Message
• SIP2
• NCIP
• ISO ILL
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11. Real-Time Updating of
Union Catalogs
• Lender responds “do not own” – record
in OPAC and in union catalog updated
or deleted
• Higher fill
rates
• Higher user
satisfaction
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12. Numbers Still a Driver
• Handles the increasing demands from
local patrons, and from other libraries
From 1986-2005
ARL statistics:
• Borrowing up 265%
• Lending up126%
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Numbers Still a Driver
“User-initiated
ILL/DD provides
better services to
users than
mediated
ILL/DD.” 2004
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Numbers Still a Driver:
Borrowing
Mediated User-Initiated
– $17.50 unit cost – $2.39 - $14.70
unit cost
– 86% fill rate
– 84 – 90% fill
– 7.6 calendar
rate
days
– 2.5 – 6.6
calendar days
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Numbers Still a Driver:
Lending
Mediated User-Initiated
– $9.27 unit cost – $3.27 - $12.06
unit cost
– 58% fill rate
– 82 – 87% fill
– 1.5 calendar
rate
days
– 0.1 – 1.5
calendar days
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Numbers Still a Driver
• ILL transactions are small percentage of
circulation
– Lorcan Dempsey: 1.7%
– Jackson, 2004: 3.9%
– Australia: 2003: 0.4%
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13. Rethinking Resource
Sharing Initiative
• Global, user-centric service framework
• Users obtain what they need based on:
– Cost
– Time
– Format
– Delivery
• Practices and procedures no longer
based on library-centric policies and
barriers
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RRS’s Get It Browser Plug-In
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“Ultimate motivation for using a discovery
service is ‘getting.’ Without efficient
‘getting,’ there is little point in providing
even the best discovery service.”
National Library of Australia
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Thank You!
Any Questions?
Mary E. Jackson
Product Manager, Resource Sharing
Auto-Graphics, Inc.
mej@auto-graphics.com
909/569-1507
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