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Primary Research Group has published Higher Education Interlibrary Loan Management Benchmarks, ISBN # 1-57440-112-2. The 200-page study presents data on interlibrary loan operations from more than 80 colleges in the United States and Canada; the data focuses particularly on productivity and staff measurement and the impact of new technologies. Just a few of the report’s many findings are that:
Close to 15% of the libraries in the sample have performed a user survey of ILL services within the past four years.
Mean turnaround time for borrowing requests for books was longer, a mean of 7.67 days, 8.7 for public colleges and 6.31 for private colleges. Requests from Canada took longer to fulfill than requests from the United States, by a considerable margin of more than 1.5 days.
Mean spending for the libraries in the sample on shipping & courier fees related to interlibrary loan was $6,857, with a median of just $2,042.
Close to 66% of the libraries in the sample allow interlibrary loan of college textbooks.
More than 86% of private colleges in the sample participate in a state borrowing network, while 71.7% of public college libraries participate in one.
73% of the libraries in the sample use fax delivery for interlibrary loan fulfillment.
A shade more than 47% of the libraries in the sample use their interlibrary loan facilities to facilitate loans of materials between campuses or units of their own institution.
For more than 57% of the libraries in the sample, use of photocopies in interlibrary loan had decreased and had increased for only 9.1%.
29.17% of the libraries in the sample strongly agree with the statement that interlibrary loan staff should have the individual in charge of database licenses also verify license issues.
Close to 13% of the libraries surveyed strongly agreed that license issue questions relating to interlibrary loan at their institution are handled on an ad hoc, as-needed basis, without a written set or practices.
For about 21.2% of the libraries surveyed, the ILL department is under the auspices of the library’s reference department.
17.65% of the colleges in the sample, the DD/EDD function is under the auspices of the access services. All were U.S.-based colleges and, in general, the more complex the degree offered, the more likely that the college was to have the DD/EED function under the auspices of the access services department.
21.69% of the libraries in the sample used WorldCat Local.
20% of the libraries in the sample have ever tried to negotiate broader license terms for institutional and patron use of their digital collections, specifically for interlibrary loan
40% of the libraries in the sample report their in-state loans in their ILL statistics. More than 59% of community colleges did so.
Close to 40% of the libraries in the sample require an MLS or MLIS librarian to supervise the interlibrary loan or document delivery department.
72.6% of the libraries in the sample do not charge for document delivery or for interlibrary loan and 19.2% charge to defray some, but less than half, of the total cost.
Data is broken out by size and type of college, for public and private colleges, and for colleges in the USA and in Canada. The report is available for $89.50 directly from Primary Research Group, or from major book distributors. PDF and site license versions are also available. For a table of contents and further information, view our website at www.PrimaryResearch.com.
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