A presentation about the Scan and Deliver service at the Yale University Library, originally delivered at ALA Annual 2014

1. How to Scan ALL THE THINGS:
Scan and Deliver at Yale
Tom Bruno
Associate Director for Resource Sharing and Reserves
Yale University Library
FEAST 2014
ALA Annual Conference

2. Phase One: Document Delivery
• Launched September 4, 2012
• Initial participating libraries
included Sterling Memorial
Library, Center for Science and
Social Science Information,
Divinity Library, Medical
Library, Yale Law Library
• Added Library Shelving Facility
(off-site storage), Music
Library, Geology and Math
Libraries in October 2012;
Microforms in December
2012; Arts Library and Bass
Library in Summer 2013
• Over 10,000,000 eligible items
Venimus, scrutavimus, reddidimus
“We came, we scanned, we delivered!”

3. How it works
• Patron clicks Request Scan
link in OPAC
• Request passed from OPAC
to ILLiad via OpenURL
• Scan and Deliver requests
filled within 2 business days
(service guarantee)
• All faculty, students, and
staff eligible, as well as
alumni with paid borrowing
privileges
• Up to 2 chapters/articles
can be requested at a time

4. Year One Statistics
• 19,074 “born” Scan and Deliver requests in
Yale FY13 (July ‘12-July ‘13)
• 14,341 requests filled- 75% fill rate
• Top reasons for unfilled requests include
Copyright/Terms of Service Exceeded, Not On
Shelf, and Lack Volume (for periodicals)
• Patrons have option to resubmit Scan and
Deliver requests via Interlibrary Loan

5. Constant Assessment= Perpetual
Improvement
• At launch we embedded a
Qualtrics link into the email
delivery notification
• Commitment to keeping the
link in permanently as
ongoing
assessment/continuous
improvement
• Great rapid response for
service, quality control
issues, user-driven
enhancement requests
(e.g., direct links to PDF,
OCR)

6. I CAN HAZ SATISFAKSHUN?

7. Phase Two: E-Reserves
• In Spring 2013, Yale University
implemented Ares as its new
course reserves management
system
• Question: could we leverage
Scan and Deliver to fulfill E-Reserves
scanning requests?
• Utilized Ares OpenURL
functionality to push E-Reserves
scanning requests
out to Scan and Deliver service
• When request was filled, Ares
TN # embedded in the ILLiad
request allowed for automatic
upload back into Ares

8. The good, the bad and the ugly
• Success! Scan and Deliver
allowed us to process almost
2x the volume of E-Reserves in
a fraction of the time using
previous workflows
• 50% of all E-Reserves scanning
complete by 1st day of classes;
all scans complete by Week 4
• Almost all extra scan requests
came during the first few
weeks of the semester, when
little/no reliable student help
was available

9. Year Two Statistics
• 29,242 “born” Scan and Deliver requests in
Yale FY14 (July ‘13-July’14)
• 20,301 requests filled- 70% fill rate
• Addition of E-Reserves and eligible of high-volume
circulation collections in Bass Library
lead to increases in requests exceeding
Copyright Limits/Terms of Service and items
Not on Shelf

10. Phase Three: Special Scanning
• Yale’s Special Collections
dealing with more and more
patron requests for “quick
and dirty” scans thanks to
greater online
discoverability
• Digital Humanities faculty
and librarians looking for
cheaper, faster, non-vendor
solution for “research
digitization” projects
• Could Scan and Deliver take
on these special scanning
requests?

11. Putting The DH into the Digital
Humanities
• Spring 2014 Pilot for Research
digitization projects
• Preservation scanning “punch
work” request for Arcadia
Grant scans
• Other “scan on demand”
functions for other library
departments- e.g., scanning
old paper Privileges forms so
the originals could be
shredded
• GOAL: Utilize the latent
capacity in student scanning
hours during the semester

12. The Curse of the Mummy, and other
qualified failures…
• Each project turned out to be a
different kind of learning
experience
• Importance of developing reliable
request and fulfillment
infrastructure for special scanning
requests (so nothing is lost
because it goes outside the
normal workflow)
• We have the technological
capacity to produce digital
preservation-quality scans, but it
requires much greater quality
control- ideally built into the
scanning process
• Yes, there was an actual
Mummy’s curse…
DISCLAIMER: This may or may not
have actually happened

13. Where do we go from here?
• Formalizing the ability to push
scanning requests from Special
Collections to Scan and Deliver
(and back again)
• ILLiad-Aeon interoperability
• What do we do with all of
these scans? Questions about
dark archives, normalizing
metadata, and copyright
• Addressing the Unfilleds-automatic
routing to Rapid ILL,
other suppliers if request
cannot be filled via Scan and
Deliver
• Hoverboards???

14. Final Thoughts: The Simpsons On Patron
Expectations
Agnes: And you, start over. I want
everything in one bag.
Pimple Faced Kid: Yes, ma'am!
Agnes: But I don't want the bag
to be heavy.
Pimple Faced Kid: I don't think
that's possible!
Agnes: What are you, the possible
police? Just do it!
Simpson Safari, Season 12 Episode 17 (Airdate: April 1, 2001)
Homer’s ILLiad
(Beware of Greeks
bearing PDFs)

15. TOTALLY. WORTH. IT.
Can't imagine how this
service could be any better.
It saved me several hours of
work, and gratification was
almost immediate. This is
what we would call in French
a real "aubaine."