Automate interlibrary loan to create a better staff and user experience

1 July 2025

Merging two library systems is no small feat, but for the St. Louis Public Library and St. Louis County Library, it was an opportunity to create a seamless, modern experience for their community. In 2023, the St. Louis Public Library, with its 15 branches, and the St. Louis County Library combined to better reach St. Louis’ metro population of 2.8 million people. The two libraries merged their catalogs and library management systems, creating a shared catalog that has enhanced access for their community.

Make implementation easy

After the libraries merged, Laura Kuhl, St. Louis Public Library’s Manager of Customer Service, turned her attention to modernizing their interlibrary loan (ILL) services. Tipasa emerged as the ideal solution, offering a modern, easy-to-use staff interface that streamlined workflows. It has the added benefit of being cloud-based, which allowed their IT department to focus on other priorities.

“The training we received from OCLC was incredibly clear,” Laura shared. “We had plenty of time to ask questions, and the project managers were responsive to everything we needed. Everything was laid out with so much helpful documentation. I wasn’t expecting the process to be smooth—implementations rarely are—but this one was easy. Any bumps we encountered were minor and quickly resolved. This was a huge win.”

The implementation process was completed in three months. Even staff members who were initially hesitant about the change quickly embraced Tipasa. “By the end of the first week, one of our longest-serving staff members, who had admitted they didn’t like change, told me, ‘This is so much better,’” Laura recalled.

Save time with intuitive processes

Tipasa’s automation features, such as deflections and lending request management, significantly reduced the workload on staff and made processes faster. “It’s just so much easier. The automations have made things faster and more efficient for our team—especially for lending requests, which are now far simpler than they were before,” Laura said.

The results of moving to Tipasa has been impressive. Lending went up nearly 100 requests a month, which reflects the improved efficiency of the system. Automation has reduced the need for manual staff intervention, allowing the team to have more flexibility and more time to spend on their other responsibilities, such as answering system-wide phone calls, emails, and chat inquiries. “There’s a lot happening behind the scenes that we don’t even have to touch—it just works,” Laura explained. One member of her team shared that, “We love automations!”

Tipasa has eliminated the need to create profiles for new library users, replacing a multi-step procedure with a streamlined process that’s a great time-saver for staff. Additionally, Tipasa automatically blocks requests from ineligible users, such as those exceeding their borrowing limits, saving staff time by eliminating the need for manual verifications.

Library users have also benefited from the transition, finding the new system intuitive and easy to use. Accurate updates and statuses on the patron-facing ILL webpage have rectified much of the confusion users previously experienced. “We haven’t heard a single complaint from a customer, which is amazing,” Laura said. “It’s been fairly seamless on the customer end, and that’s the dream.”

Location

• St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Library at a glance

• Serves a population of 250,000 in the city and 2.8 million in the St. Louis metro area
• Has over 1.2 million items in their collections
• The Central Library, SLPL’s main branch, is a historic landmark designed by renowned architect Cass Gilbert and underwent a $70 million renovation in 2012, restoring its grandeur while integrating modern amenities