Drowning in ILL? Help is on the Way.

Many NEKLS libraries, especially smaller libraries, have reported extreme increases in statewide interlibrary loan requests since July 1st. That is because the revised preferred lender lists for courier libraries have been sorted with smallest collections first. That means that a library with a very small collection would be right at the top of the lender lists. Changes are on the way to relieve that excessive burden.

First, remember that your library is not required to fill all Kicnet/Agent interlibrary loan request it receives. If you are already loaning more items than you are requesting, and the number of requests is exceeding your available staff time, feel free to decline some requests and let a library further down the lender list fill those items.

Second, the preferred lender lists are going to be resorted in January with the libraries with the highest loan/borrow ratio farthest down the list. That will relieve the burden on the libraries that have been most generous in providing interlibrary loans. In order to take advantage of that you should submit your 2009 interlibrary loan report no later than January 8, 2010. Here is additional information about this from Rhonda Machlan at the State Library.

“At a recent meeting of the Kansas Library Express policy committee, we discussed the situation where some smaller courier libraries are concerned about the volume of requests they were receiving. In order to alleviate that situation, we propose to reorder the preferred lender lists for courier libraries along the lines of the system-wide lender list – by borrowing/lending ratio rather than collection size. We’ll try that for around 6 months starting in January and see if it helps.

In order to do this properly, we need the most current ILL figures we can get from courier libraries, especially those that feel they are getting a disproportionate share of requests. As soon as you know your figures for 2009, please complete the online form at http://skyways.lib.ks.us/KSL/kild/ILLcgiform.html ; I plan to reorder the lender lists early in the second week of January.”