Unlock the Power of Your Library’s Electronic Serials.  Part 3: Deflection in WorldCat Resource Sharing

Finishing our theme of how a library can maximize its investment in e-serials and how OCLC can help, another very important piece of the puzzle is the deflection feature in WorldCat Resource Sharing (WCRS). While the e-serials holdings service facilitates entering holdings for e-serials in WorldCat, many libraries are hesitant to do this because they “own but do not loan” the serial due to licensing restrictions. This is where deflection can help!  Deflection allows the library to both set its holdings in WorldCat and to automatically turn away any interlibrary loan requests. All that is required is some investment of staff time devising the deflection strategy, then creating the deflection policy in WCRS. The end result is that the library can:

• Have its e-serials holdings in WorldCat for the benefit of its staff and patrons
• Not add to its staff workload in ILL

For more information about the deflection feature in WCRS, please contact OCLC Eastern at 1-800-543-4599.

(2008 05 05)