University of Essex
Supply articles in a more efficient and environmentally friendly way
"We wanted a more efficient and greener way of obtaining and supplying articles via ILL rather than posting them out."
Sandra DeRoy
Former Principal Library Assistant, ILL, University of Essex
With more article requests coming from library users, staff at the Albert Sloman Library at the University of Essex felt they needed to employ a more efficient, secure and environmentally friendly way of supplying articles without having to print and post them. As users of WorldShare® Interlibrary Loan (ILL), they found there was already a feature available with their subscription. Article Exchange provides a secure website for library users to retrieve electronic documents obtained for them through interlibrary loan.
Initially, the staff conducted a small trial of Article Exchange with in-house requests from partner institutions. "The ease with which we found Article Exchange meant that we could use it for any document transfer as appropriate in any of our workflows." said Sandra DeRoy, Former Principal Library Assistant, ILL and current User Services Team Leader at the University of Essex. "The improved scanning services at our home library enhanced our overall ILL outcome with very good quality copies being 'shipped' to and received from anywhere in the world, direct to the user’s desktop."
Sandra continued, "We use OCLC WorldShare Interlibrary Loan alongside other ILL mechanisms in order to satisfy, as efficiently as possible, the requests we receive from our users."
"Article Exchange has been a particularly useful tool for supplying articles to our users and between campuses and other affiliated institutions."
By using Article Exchange, library staff have enjoyed less paperwork and expense and have found it quick and easy to use. "It was relatively simple and required very little additional training to introduce the new procedures into our workflow," stated Sandra. They are also safe in the knowledge that the articles are arriving securely to the user. Their users have seen benefits as well. "Students and faculty staff have noticed a difference in the speed of article delivery and the ease with which they can download the articles," stated Sandra.
"It is important to investigate all aspects of your existing products to see if there are solutions already waiting for you, which you haven’t identified," Sandra said. "We have seen improvements with using Article Exchange and just wish we had started using it sooner!"
Services used by the University of Essex
WorldShare Interlibrary LoanOCLC Cataloging and Metadata Subscription
- Set in beautiful green surroundings that were once admired and painted by Constable
- Collection includes a book in the Harsnett Collection that belonged to King Henry VIII and marzipan figures of the original ‘Gang of Four’ of the Social Democratic Party
- Has a working Paternoster lift, which is always a draw on open days
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