Expand your network and gain greater visibility internationally

The library at the Università Bocconi has used WorldShare^® Interlibrary Loan (ILL) to borrow resources from libraries worldwide for more than two decades. “Our library reflects the international commitment that Bocconi has always pursued,” said Anna Vaglio, former ILL Librarian at Università Bocconi. “The professors and students were asking us for resources from British and American publishers. And even though Italian and European libraries hold very rich collections, it meant that we needed to rethink our strategy to expand our network to get the resources being requested.”

Anna continued, saying that WorldShare ILL “gave us more chances to easily obtain the documents we needed. And IFM [Interlibrary Loan Fee Management] gave us a good solution to deal with the different payment and refund methods of this large network that we were now part of.”

More recently, the library took an opportunity to enhance its level of service to the global library community. Staff added the university’s collections to WorldCat^®, making them discoverable worldwide, and began lending resources to other libraries. “This meant that our collections became more visible globally and that we could become a supplier to the WorldShare ILL community,” said Anna. With the addition of the library’s collections to WorldCat, ILL staff have seen a lot of requests for their historical resources, which reaffirms the value of their print collections to the top university management.

WorldShare ILL, especially paired with WorldCat, has also benefited Università Bocconi’s library staff, students, teachers, and researchers. “It is easier for us to find documents and follow the request path, payments are easy, and we have better turnaround times and more documents available. Teachers and researchers are also finding that there is greater visibility of their works too. We often highlight the benefits of using these services during library presentations to teachers and top university management as it gives Università Bocconi more visibility on a global scale, which feeds back into our international commitment promise.”

Location

• Milan, Italy

Library at a glance

• Holds approximately 890,000 print volumes; 28,700 e-journals; and 110,000 e-books and serves 14,470 students and 2,220 faculty members
• Has more than 2,000 visitors every day
• Offers a range of services, including a European Documentation Centre and Digital Literacy workshops