Increase e-content usage with systems that work together

The National Academy of Sciences Research Center learned that its existing integrated library system would no longer be supported and that the server "was going to die," said Colleen Willis, Senior Librarian for Digital Resources. That gave Colleen, who was new to her position, about a year to move from researching options to completing the implementation of a new system.

When considering a new system, she explained, "I needed all the pieces to talk well to each other." Colleen and her staff of six chose WorldShare^® Management Services mostly because of the integrated applications, such as WorldCat^® knowledge base and WorldCat Local, which are available from a single platform.

Now that WorldShare Management Services is fully implemented, "our catalog usage has gone up by 58%… and our electronic resource usage has gone up 33%." Colleen also noted a big increase in lending requests through interlibrary loan—because other libraries can see their full collection—and a decrease in borrowing requests—because users can easily access their e-journals and e-books.

"As far as making things discoverable for our users, this is the best that we have seen. It has really worked well for us," Colleen explained. "The WorldShare staff interface is clean and clear. Administration, circulation, cataloging, the knowledge base—they're all in that one spot for us." With WorldShare Management Services, the library has lowered its costs, met its budget requirements and saved staff time. Colleen estimated that it took her about eight weeks to set her 2013 electronic collection subscription renewals before WorldShare Management Services. "I'm estimating that it's only going to take me about four weeks total to set all my 2014 subscriptions."

Colleen has directed her extra resources toward raising the library's profile, especially through the development of LibGuides that show the impact of National Academy reports. These are "going to help elevate our library research center and really make us a true part of the process in our institution," she said. "And I think that's what a lot of special libraries are fighting for."

Library at a glance

• The collection meets research needs of the National Academies' staff
• The library supports around 1,110 users but only checks out about five items per month
• The physical collection is not open to the public, but users can search for reports online and often access the full-text PDFs