| Constant
Data |
Many of us rely on the OCLC ILL subsystem for
processing ILL requests and managing the work of the ILL office. Below and to the
left are links to and information about the main ILL tools - products and services -
offered by OCLC. Constant Data allows ILL staff to create standard workforms that include much of the static information about the ILL request or the requesting library. Typically, a constant data workform will contain the library's name, mailing address, phone, fax, email, reciprocal agreements and affiliations, and any notes the staff wants to appear on all requests (i.e. "We do not charge for loans or copies"). ILL staff can create separate requests for loans and photocopies and for any other special circumstances. Then, when placing requests, staff members simply set the constant data using the command "set cd [loans]" and the information appears on each workform that is generated. Check the OCLC web site for directions on setting up constant data. Custom Holdings and Holdings Paths are a great way to speed up the process of selecting lender strings for OCLC ILL requests. Custom holdings are groups of libraries that are preferred lenders for any variety of reasons, generally because they do not charge for loan and copies, because they provide fast service, or because they loan hard to acquire items such as a-v material or genealogy. Directions for creating custom holdings groups and paths can be found on the OCLC web site. It is highly recommended that you manage your custom holdings and holdings paths through the OCLC ILL Web interface, which is much more user friendly than Passport for this task. To create custom holdings, gather the OCLC symbols of libraries that meet the criterion of the group you are creating. For example, as a public library, your first choice of lenders should be other public libraries within your state, followed by in-state academic or special libraries. Gather the symbols of libraries included in these groups to complete a custom holding group. Other typical groups include libraries involved in a regional courier system, out-of-state public libraries that lend for free, out-of-state academic and special libraries that lend for free, libraries that lend audio-visual material for free (maybe another group for those that lend a-v for a fee), etc. Don't forget to create custom holdings groups for any libraries with which you have a signed reciprocal agreement, either through OCLC regional offices, individual agreements, or LVIS. Custom holding paths tell the OCLC ILL subsystem the order in which you want to borrow from custom holdings libraries. A typical custom holdings path would select in-state public libraries, in-state academic or special libraries, reciprocal agreement libraries, and other out-of-state free lenders in that order. When you select a bibliographic record, you use the command "dhc" or "display custom holdings" rather than "dha" which displays all holdings. OCLC will display a list of lenders in your custom holdings and select a lender string based on your holdings path. Direct Request allows your customers to place interlibrary loan requests through WorldCat that may be sent directly to the OCLC ILL Subsystem without ILL staff intervention. The most common way to use Direct Request is to set up profiles that define acceptable requests for direct processing. All requests that don't meet the profile are sent to a review file for ILL staff to review and either process or cancel. Profiles are very flexible and can limit by publication date, language, format, number of available lenders on the bib record, and other factors. Direct Request can be very beneficial to public libraries as many requests coming through WorldCat are for fairly recent, commonly held materials. It is important to figure out how Direct Requests will fit into your workflow - how they will be uploaded into an existing ILL management system, how to handle unfilled requests, etc. Check the OCLC web site for information about turning on Direct Request and setting up profiles. OCLC offers electronic billing through the use of IFM. To pay lending charges electronically, simply enter your allowable maxcost in the :maxcost: field on the workform followed by "ifm." The letters "ifm" must be the last letters in that field and must be preceded by a dollar amount, with or without an accompanying dollar sign - $10ifm or 10ifm. When a library marks the item "shipped" they enter their lending charges in the :lending charges: field again followed by "ifm." Once the item is marked "received" by the requesting library, OCLC applies a credit to the OCLC bill of the lender and a debit to the requesting library. The requesting library also pays a transaction fee that differs depending on your OCLC regional office, but is generally less than $2.00 and considerably cheaper than the cost of processing an invoice. You can view IFM reports online to verify which requests were completed successfully. You do not have to sign up to use IFM billing; it is available for anyone to use by just typing IFM into the maxcost field. One consideration - borrowing fees will now be added to your OCLC account which may mean a change in bookkeeping practices for your business office. OCLC offers an ILL Tutorial for new users or ILL staff members who may not have been trained on every aspect of OCLC ILL or who may not be familiar with more recent changes. LVIS stands for "Libraries Very Interested in Sharing." LVIS members agree to lend books and photocopy up to 50 pages at no charge to other members. Depending on your OCLC region, there may be a small fee to sign up, but you are richly rewarded with over 1500 free lenders. In addition, a custom holdings group of LVIS members can be found online for ease in adding the group to your custom holdings. When LVIS started, there was some concern about libraries being swamped with a huge increase in borrowing requests, but so far, that has not been the experience of LVIS participants. Contact your OCLC regional office for more information on joining LVIS. The OCLC ILL Microenhancer allows batch processing of borrowing and lending requests. Users can download incoming requests from other libraries as well as borrowing requests that need attention, such as unfilled, recalled, and conditional requests. In addition, users can update requests, such as shipped or denied lending requests, received items, and renewal requests. Use of the Microenhancer can greatly speed your workflow and make your staff much more efficient. The Microenhancer can be downloaded from the OCLC web site for free. The Name-Address Directory (or NAD) available on OCLC provides a wealth of information about OCLC member libraries. NAD listings contain contact information including phone, fax, email, and web site addresses. In addition, the listings often provide loan periods, loan charges, restricted material, and information about the reciprocal or consortial agreements the library has signed. These listings can be found by typing a colon (:) followed by the library's OCLC code. Information about finding NAD information and updating your own library's NAD can be found on the OCLC web site. Passport is a powerful user interface for interlibrary loan staff. The Interlibrary Loan functionality of Passport allows complex searches which can be limited by date or format to narrow results. Passport also allows ILL staff to create workforms and produce interlibrary loan requests. If you are not familiar with Passport, check out the information on OCLC's web site. You may also want to check out our page on Passport search tips. OCLC offers a number of reports to help you manage your interlibrary loan operations. Many of these reports are free. You can check on requests that were sent through Direct Request (and find out what percentage went through without intervention), check on requests that used IFM billing, find out who your major borrowing and lending partners are, and more. In addition, ILL staff can subscribe to and ILL Management report that provides statistical information about your monthly activity on OCLC and can be downloaded into an Access database. OCLC offers several training classes focused on the needs of interlibrary loan departments. Each OCLC regional office creates and schedules their own training workshops. Check with your regional office for information about training schedules in your area. OCLC offers a comprehensive online users manual that offers information about every process that takes place in the OCLC ILL subsystem. The fairly new OCLC ILL web interface offers a very user-friendly interface for handling the interlibrary loan process. The drawback of the web interface is the lack of speed as compared to the power of the Passport interface in that area. However, the web interface is easy to use, especially for people with little or no experience in Passport's specialized command language. In addition, it is a much easier way to manage custom holdings and constant data. OCLC claims to be working on a web-based system that will include the user-friendliness of this interface with the speed of the Passport interface. They have repeatedly stated that until they can provide a web-based program that will work for power users who depend on the speed of Passport, both products will remain available for use. The ILLiad Interlibrary Loan Management System, which is licensed by OCLC, includes an independent version of Passport which will continue to be supported even if OCLC discontinues Passport support down the road. |