NW ILL & RS Conference Sept 2021 ILL Virtual Conversations

Lars Leon, Tom Bruno

260 participants on Zoom session. A robust list of ideas were submitted on our GoogleDoc and in chat during our presentation. The following list does not contain all of those ideas. We are very sorry. Two issues: GoogleDoc is limited to 95 participants which we were not aware of. In addition, there were so many typing that some blocks of text was overwritten and data being entered wasn’t getting saved fast enough by Google. We’ve learned our lesson and encourage anyone to add their ideas to our conversation as we go forward.

Favorite fall activity

  • Taking nature photos of the fall foliage
  • Bonfires!
  • Pumpkin patch with the family!
  • wearing a scarf!
  • Attending all the season openings at the opera and various theatres in Chicago
  • Waiting for the first snow! (Winter lover here).
  • pumpkin lattes
  • Picking apples at Greenbluff
  • camp fires
  • Moving plants for spring plans
  • The falling leaves … red, yellow, orange, brown …
  • +1 to picking apples
  • Pumpkin Spice Lattes as well!
  • Missing East Coast.  Brilliant leaves against bright clear blue sky!
  • Love going to the beach in the Fall!
  • cooler weather

What do you think about ideas shared from RRSI sessions?

  1. Oh my – the thought of a dedicated nation-wide courier is awesome. That would be so much easier for everyone!
  2. I like hearing that people were relying on their ILL community – whether that’s local libraries, consortium, etc. We need each other to make this work, and I think this year, more than any other, we really provided each other with support (both professionally and personally).
  3. I was relieved to learn that other libraries were facing similar challenges and encouraged that they are also enhancing services (home delivery service was a little bit scary) and adjusting policies to serve our patrons during the pandemic. It was reassuring to know that we were looking in the right direction.
  4. The great relationships that were formed when we were all working remotely. This showed truly how amazing the ILL Community is.
  5. That concern about fracturing and “walled gardens” is really striking to me. It’s awesome that we’re in a time of new initiatives, structures, and technology, but it will be interesting to see how resource sharing communities develop and how they interact or don’t interact with each other.
  6. I also worry about the silos that are starting to occur with the different vendors. I would like to see all the vendors working together to be able to lend/borrow between them.
  7. I love the idea of a nation-wide currier. Our state is so rural that it would be too expensive to sign on with a currier system. Shared ideas are also great because sometimes we can be stagnant or siloed in our local community.
  8. A nation-wide courier seems like a crazy idea but if implemented properly it could be awesome. If only, if only…
  9. It really is a great time to re-examine long standing policies and procedures that had to be adjusted during the pandemic. If we can make things better with longer loan periods, more eBook sharing, etc., why not?
  10. We have a nation-wide courier, it’s called the post office. Let’s focus on restoring and improving that service.
  11. Concerned that some of the consortial groups are essentially constructing those walls such that sharing will become more difficult for those outside the group
  12. A nationwide courier system would be interesting, though I wonder how it could be managed as far as working with a courier that would be able to maintain that type of service through different states etc. It would be an idea worth exploring though my consortium uses ExPak shipping for courier and it works very well.
  13. Nationwide sharing and further would be amazing. Systems that can all integrate together would help this become successful. Flexibility is going to be essential.
  14. I’d love a regional library we could pay to run our smaller ILL service. Somewhere that has expertise.
  15. How to keep enhanced services
  16. Do you run your ILL as a “fulfillment service” or as a mini-library with reference services?
  17. Moving away from OCLC, moving towards systems like ExL or ReShare, starting CDL…on the one hand amazing transformations and rethinking of systems, but on the other, we remain and perhaps worsen the way we are so fractured. So many disparate systems and workflows. And there is so much pressure to transition, even when short of staff or systems expertise. In one small consortium my library belongs to, we have Folio, ExL, OCLC, no OCLC, Tipasa, ILLiad, Rapido…and soon ReShare. It’s getting a little crazy.
  18. Standardized loan period (10 weeks, 12 weeks, etc.) 
  19. Ideas like HathiTrust ETAs works great for the academic research institutions that are part of it.  It has meant that I have been unable to obtain materials for my patrons for over a year since the items only existed at academics that were participating in HathiTrust ETA — again, walls that are separating us
  20. Indication of what a bill might be for lost or damaged–better evaluate is this an item a patron/library still wants to borrow
  21. A nationwide courier sounds great in theory, but in practice, our regional courier is plagued with problems, and if they expanded to nationwide, it would NOT be a good thing.
  22. I too worry about fractured gardens and walls among various ILL systems. And hypothetically, if we collectively jumped ship from OCLC to another (like ExL), they would likely develop the same problems (too costly, slow implementation of updates, etc.) 
  23. Simplify and standardize rules and policies. 
  24. Yes! Group of public libraries get together to agree to basic ILL policies.
  25. More meetings like this would be good. Solidarity and shared brains. Keep it simple.
  26. IDS and Rapid have it right: responsive customer service, help you make boutique workflows using systems
  27. The idea of borrowing/lending e-books is something that eve npatrons have been waiting for quite a long time, that should be one of the topics that has to be discussed more often (in my opinion) it has a lot of potential!
  28. The SHARES town halls were an absolute lifesaver. We survived this year because of our fabulous ILL community.
  29. Folks able to access eversion (view only) if they had print copy (that wasn’t accessible then to their local patrons or ILL as a loan)
  30. I’m wondering what folks disliked about OCLC besides cost.
  31. I think we need to take a hard look at CONTU
  32. I think more flexibility in individual institution policies would definitely help
  33. My work browser won’t let me open the doc
  34. I would love to see a website or some space for resource sharing practitioners where ideas could be shared, policy changes could be considered, etc. We have listservs, we have consortiums, but what about some central space where any resource sharing practitioner could contribute/learn.
  35. Hear, hear! It’s too much for me to bite off all by myself, but I’m interested if other places have come up with new norms/practices.
  36. Revive ShareILL.org
  37. CONTU is not God
  38. YES! ShareILL was great!
  39. We talked a lot about it, but nothing has changed
  40. +1 for the call for a central location (discussion, learning, best practices, policy changes)
  41. Nor is CONTU law, it is a guideline.
  42. My OCLC frustration (pre-COVID by the way ) is the slowness of implementing enhancement requests.
  43. From our health sciences libraries ILL and DD survey about pandemic changes, we have some data about changes in these areas and recommendations for systems and workflows to improve.  We will be publishing results in an open journal, in the meantime check out our lightning talk at NWILL
  44. I agree with the frustration with OCLC slowness of implementing enhancement requests. Especially for new systems like Tipasa
  45. It would be great to have it be easier to lend/borrow ebooks
  46. Yes xxx I agree, and have it build into the OCLC products!
  47. Wow that would be so nice!
  48. I agree to [the need for] an easy way of borrow/lend e-books.
  49. Has your participation been mostly academic libraries? Much info/input from public libraries? [Lars – See RRSI summer notes for counts]
  50. I have seen some institutes using IFM for cost of replacement invoicing/payments. It’s so much easier than regular billing
  51. We use IFM too! love it
  52. I would like to learn more about borrowing chapters from ebooks
  53. Perhaps a IFLA type LOST BOOK Coupon that Libraries could purchase and then circulate? then it would be good worldwide?

How are you feeling about Resource Sharing now?

  1. I have and want to learn so much! I only know ILL work during the pandemic since I started March 30,2020 and want to know the “normal” if at all exists in Resource Sharing. Gratitude to all who mentored, responded with details, guided me.
  2. During the pandemic, I felt really good about the electronic articles we were sending out. Working from home and sending a medical library or medical school an article that was obviously about the pandemic was satisfying on many levels. I felt like I was doing something to help, instead of feeling helpless like some of my family and friends.
  3. Over the pandemic, Resource Sharing has felt more “hands on”. We couldn’t rely on automation for the numerous exceptions and special cases that came up. However, increased communication with other Resource Sharing librarians has been fun and made me feel more connected to others in the field.
  4. During closures and pandemic, I appreciate the patience of other libraries and institutions as we all had to figure out how to navigate on our own and with each other.
  5. I would like to think that administration and faculty would see our value because of how much we’ve done during COVID, but I’m not hopeful that it will translate into concrete improvements in budget, salary, or recognitions like faculty rank.
  6. So many systems!!
  7. I would love to see a website or some sort of space for any resource sharing practitioners to share ideas and learn. ShareILL used to be a great space, would love to see something like that revived. This would be a great space for people to share about new policies, new ideas they’ve tried. There’s no need for all of us to reinvent the wheel. We can learn from each other.
  8. I love working in Resource Sharing and feel there is so much to learn and advance in not only for my own job, but I feel like Resource Sharing can grow and evolve, change old policies that are really holding us back from possibly reaching more patrons. During the pandemic, I worked from home and mainly relied on e-articles to send to libraries. Unfortunately many requests had to be canceled because we simply did not own an e-copy. 
  9. We have been happy to see some institutions extending due dates and accepting renewal requests, especially as courier and mail service has been sporadic in dependability.  Those that are still putting in 2-week loan periods, we don’t even receive them until after the due dates!
  10. I feel like there’s a lot of work we need to do as a resource sharing community, but many of us are burned out or lacking the capacity to take on volunteer roles to do this service work.
  11. As new systems are developed the competition between vendors is an issue. It is frustrating to be told integrations are possible between systems when support for making them work is really dependent on the individual library’s resources and staff.  Being sold products based on functions that aren’t built yet is discouraging.
  12. Hopeful that we’ve gotten through the brunt of difficulties and we’re coming through the other side. I’m proud to be part of this community
  13. I need to get my library to implement the STARS checklist and get involved with RRSI.
  14. I have either been alone due to turnover or now because my colleague is .10 ILL now. I feel like I don’t have time to keep up with new information and trends due to the daily tasks.  I find the conference always reinvigorates me! 
  15. I think it’s been going well. We have had some issues recently with a few items disappearing coming to us in the mail or some things disappearing on their way back via the mail. But everyone has been very understanding and patient, sometimes our patrons have not always been because we were quarantining materials for a while, delaying processing arriving materials. We’re no longer doing that though.
  16. Never really realized what a vital service ILL is until attending this conference.  Helps me look beyond the university walls and see what others are doing in their departments.
  17. Great – I really like the new OCLC Express group to get things quicker (under 18 hrs) 
  18. So many technology updates over pandemic. We need to completely start fresh to re-install, redo ILLiad to work efficiently.

How are you feeling about the future of Resource Sharing?

  1. Importance of making the business case for RS. Emphasis of data/stats that show how important we are to library operations. 
  2. Continued professionalization of RS. The benefit of having an MLS when working in ILL. 
  3. High priorities (imo) – CDL and e-books and gaining knowledge of copyright
  4. I feel like things are branching out too much – different products that don’t talk to each other, policies changing in different regions, etc. Definitely feeling the garden walls. 🙁 
  5. Marketing the service
  6. To add to the marketing service idea… market it to the management as well to keep offering the service! (small public library here… but is more important to us then some BECAUSE we are small).  I guess this is the same as making the business case for RS, but the “data/stats” for a small library doesn’t come across as well… 
  7. Still hopeful. We are a resilient community and even if there are some barriers technologically speaking, I feel we have the brains and talent to create alternative systems that work for us, should that need arise
  8. Repeated pressure to join ILS/LSP-based RS or Project ReShare from the vendors or others (system person, admin, etc.) is…tiring? Exhausting? We just can’t switch to a much smaller ILL network as we need to support researchers of wide range of subjects.It seems that there are lots of “wait and see” technologies coming up. Anxious and exciting at the same time.
  9. I am hopeful. We offer something that, in my view, can’t be replaced. Particularly in a time of budgets being cut and services changing, our libraries can’t own everything. This community is vital to ensure our patrons have access to the materials they need. I don’t see that going away anytime soon. I think the need will only grow and evolve. If it’s not physical books we’re circulating, we’ll shift to sharing e-books. If it’s not e-books, we’ll find ways to make CDL work. The resource sharing community is really good at rolling with the punches and finding creative approaches to solve problems.
  10. I’m feeling anxious about it. In the near future we will have to move onto a new system so I am worried that we/I will move us onto a software or system that will fall apart or not work as well. I definitely don’t want us to build those garden walls. My system has also been very frustrated with OCLC and the costs and lack of clarity. But I’m hoping with more virtual conferences or hybrid conferences that more ILL staff can get more training that they otherwise wouldn’t have.
  11. A bit nervous – will we be eventually replaced by AI? 
  12. I think that, unfortunately, we may need Tier 1 libraries from large institutions/consortia to put more pressure on vendors instead of jumping ship and developing their own solutions. If they do that, those of us who can’t do so get left behind without any leverage. I worry about that.
  13. Also wondering how much will be automated but not worried that my job will be in jeopardy.  Concerned about licensing of e-books and e-journals and other barriers to sharing in future, especially in such a capitalist society that is more invested in profits and not considering the larger picture of advancing global knowledge.
  14. Session #12 tomorrow about OCLC automated request manager for WorldShare, Tipasa, and ILLIAD.

What actions can you take? we take? (as individuals, groups, community, engage with RS stakeholders)?

  1. Advocate with your Acquisitions folks to make sure licenses are as ILL friendly as possible, do not mention CONTU, allow for eBook sharing, etc.
  2. ADVOCACY. With Acquisitions, with publishers, with stakeholders internal and external to our libraries.
  3. Make sure to take advantage of statistics tools that will show just how important ILL services are to an institution’s library to higher management.
  4. Get involved with RRSI.
  5. How do we get our “less ILL friendly” administrators on board with things like renegotiating ILL friendly ebook contracts
  6. Troubleshooting & Problem solving in ILL Discussion Group in EventMobi.
  7. Action – ask vendors to provide interoperability (if enough of us ask, maybe they’ll do it?)
  8. As a community, I feel like we’re going to need to make decisions that are sub-optimum for “my institution” to make things better for the community as a whole/force change
  9. Take a fresh new look at the ALA ILL rules with more stakeholder input
  10. ALA ILL Code is up for revision this year – watch for calls for input in the next few months
  11. Kudos to ILU! [chat submitted after reference made to Texas Tech’s work on Occam’s Reader]
  12. our library catalogued the collection for a Native Friendship centre library….maybe idea for helping implementation in small community libraries by piggy-backing and being mentored by established libraries
  13. We never broke the Google Doc before- congratulations, all!
  14. [Lars mentioned OCLC ILL Cost Calculator as a means to understand what your ILL is costing you and can help you consider lower fees] someone shared link https://researchworks.oclc.org/illcostcalculator/

End of list – please either add comments to the RRSI website or you can email Lars lleon@ku.edu who can add.