Requests Direct

1
Requests Direct

• Forum for Interlending Workshop
• 2 July 2002

2
Introductions

• Margaret van Mellaerts
• Document Supply Manager
• Essex County Council
• Katie Anstock
• Product Manager
• Fretwell-Downing Informatics

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About Essex County Council

• Largest public library service in the UK
• Unitary authorities include Thurrock and
  Southend-on-Sea
• Population - approx. 1 million
• Number of ILL requests per month - 3000
• LMS - GEAC

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In the beginning...

• 25 years of Interlending at Essex County Council
• How has the service developed from 1975 - 2000?
• What was the ILL services objectives?
• From manual to semi-automated

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A new broom

• Times they are a changing
• October 2000
• Management changes
• ILL service - new post created
• New managers
• Radical change

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A new broom

• New managers
• Librarians
• ILL experience?
• Workshop exercise (1)
• Take your ILL hats off and think about your ILL
  service and your public library ILL service from
  the users perspective.
• Utopian exercise!

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Initial impressions

• Not service-oriented
• ILL Department not public-facing
• Slow and labour-intensive
• paper dominated service
• Time consuming process e.g.
• searching multiple bib databases
• Semi-automated with multiple tools

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UK Public Library Model

• Distinct from academic libraries
• Supplier order
• Region i.e. Co-East
• Outside region ie Conarls, non-Conarls
• British Library
• OCLC IFLA libraries

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Year 1 Action packed

• Day 1
• British Library changed their service model
• price charge increase for books
• Cost?
• September 2001
• LASER
• ceased trading

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In the background...

• Co-East
• developing library community
• Essex fully committed
• Cutting edge
• innovative services
• ILL, CI, cooperative purchasing of e-resources
• ILL
• distributed standards-based model
• resource sharing model using ISO ILL

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A bright idea!

• February 2001
• Defined strategy and business plan for Essex
  County Council ILL Service

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Visionary strategy

• Front-line service
• Utilise IT to the full
• Automate and eradicate the paper chase

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.. But how?!
Requests Direct was born
Hmmm - lets come back to that one, but dont get
bogged down in the detail!
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Demise of Laser

• and the rise of Co-East
• Essex had to radically rethink
• Workshop exercise (2)
• What would you do?
• New service model?
• Go it alone?
• Loose LASERs V3 - what then?

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What about Co-East?

• Local government reorganisation
• Start-up members
• Essex (includes Thurrock and Southend)
• Suffolk
• Cambridge (includes Peterborough)
• Essex more eastern region than London and
  South-East
• 10 members

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Co-Easts resource sharing model

• Distributed not centralised
• Standards based
• Z39.50 for searching
• ISO ILL for requesting

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The distributed model
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Co-East and Essex

• Requesting system for Co-East items
• but can it be used for more?
• Requirements analysis
• May 2001

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A potted history

• LIDDAS consortium in Australia
• Australian academic libraries
• State wide library systems in USA
• up to 3000 libraries in Colorado and Ohio
• Pharmaceutical companies
• RIDING Virtual Union Catalogue
• British Librarys ISO Gateway
• Docusend project
• Essex County Council (last but by no means least!)

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So here we are

• Z39.50 simultaneous searching
• Essex and Cambridge catalogues
• an in-print source
• other library catalogues inc. OCLC
• Further service development
• UnityWeb searching via VDX
• Web-based interface for public use
• requesting and monitoring

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Innovative messaging

• Live ART ISO messaging with British Library
• Co-East requests via ISO ILL
• Further service development
• OCLC interoperability testing scheduled
• Improved communication with branches
• currently automated using email
• Email to non-ISO library suppliers

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Requests Direct - why?

• A direct requesting service
• telephone
• email
• web
• branch library
• i.e. whichever way the user prefers

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Requests Direct - the team

• ILL team
• direct contact with users
• responsibility for public face of service
• no longer second hand with branch as intermediary

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Requests Direct - communication

• Call centre model
• tell user directly when item available locally
  from Essex or Cambridge
• whether its in print
• available from Unity members
• user told directly that request has been actioned
• user defines pick up location

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Requests Direct - communication

• Push technology
• user emailed with request status reports
• Pull technology
• user can check request status on the web

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Requests Direct - Objective

• The mystery of Interlending will be a thing of
  the past and the service will be truly direct

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Lessons learned

• Be prepared for frustrations but...
• Dont lose sight of the vision!
• Dont run before you can walk!
• Go for incremental service development
• radical service development doesnt happen
  overnight!
• staged go-lives
• Invest in staff training and technology
• but be patient!

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Vendor perspective

• Interoperability in a competitive environment -
• a contradiction in terms?!
• Customer expectations?
• Lets be realistic!
• Project management -
• on-going problem-solving
• Maintain positive attitude
• Communication is key

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So, what now?

• Workshop exercise (3)
• Is RequestsDirect the ideal model?
• Could this model be adopted in your library or
  sector?
• Academic?, public?, NHS? Regional?
• What would you do next?

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Requests Direct