The Department of Getting It: A Five Year Update Ruth Owens, SUNY ESF (VXF) IDS Project Conference July 26, 2018

The Reality and Dreams of Five Years Ago Patron Driven Acquisitions Model for books Shrinking budgets/higher serials costs Desire to Improve: Speed of Service Fulfillment rates Consistent rationale for decisions Buying vs. borrowing decision making Just in time vs. just in case A purchase almost guarantees one use Larger collection development considerations and circulation Streamline decision process by eliminating Director (from the process) Seamless process for requesting user Maximize fulfillment rates/Minimize user frustration Savings in effort and money Comes down to the philosophy of what you want ILL and public service to be

Our ILL Shop 1 Librarian – oversees ILL and Acquisitions 1 Staff Member 2 Work Study Students Average 4,500-5,000 requests a year Only one of the librarians duties Staff member also has various other duties

How It Works Users submit a request and we get it for them Usual ILL workflow to request from other libraries If the library has the book or article, request goes through Doc Del Purchased books are routed to Doc Del for completion Articles are processed in Borrowing through Reprints Desk (previously purchased and routed through Doc Del) Users are notified through ILLiad when their request is available, whether we purchased it or borrowed it or pulled it from the shelf

Tools Used ILLiad GIST Purchase Addon for Amazon Flags Routing Rules GIST Purchase Addon for Amazon Reprints Desk (within ILLiad)

Should We Purchase This Book? How many times has it been requested? If more than once, it’s a good candidate for purchase Does the subject matter match the collection development policy? Most requests do, but even if an item is out of scope it can be a candidate for purchase if it meets other criteria How much does it cost? If the item is under $100, it’s a good candidate for purchase. However, more expensive books have been purchased that meet other criteria. Consider how much a potential lending library might charge us to borrow the item How many other libraries own it? Is it new? If many libraries, particularly in our region, own it it’s probably a good candidate to borrow. Newer items that other libraries haven’t purchased yet are good candidates for purchase. We also want to be conscious of coordinated collection development within our region and consortia. How quickly can it get here? If there are several libraries that own the item but it would take a long time to get, the item is a good candidate for purchase Is this an unfilled borrowing request? If so, it’s likely a good candidate for purchase

Purchased Book Workflow Borrowing loan request comes in Purchase from Amazon or other vendor Route request to “Awaiting Acquisitions Processing” queue in Doc Del Book arrives and is rush processed Placed on Hold in ALEPH or checked out if campus delivery User notified via ILLiad Updated in ILLiad as ‘Found’ Determine it needs purchased Make ILL request for other purchase requests

Purchased Book Notification

Books Purchased Usually purchased from Amazon 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018 Total Books Purchased 5 22 54 43 25 Average Cost per Book $122.62 $118.01 $91.89 $101.08 $67.47

Should We Purchase This Article? Same questions for books, but also: Have we exceeded the “Rule of 5” for copyright for recently published articles? If so, the article is a good candidate for purchase, usually through Reprints Desk Is the whole issue being requested, or a large portion of it? This doesn’t happen often, but if so a subscription to the journal may be considered if other criteria are met Are requests for articles from this journal coming from more than one person? If so, a subscription to the journal may be considered but the requested article will be obtained one way or the other How much does a single article cost? Most articles cost between $25-60 and anything over that may also be purchased on a case by case basis. Consider whether a potential lending library may charge

Purchasing Articles Direct from publisher websites Saved pdf and routed request through Doc Del Since 2016 we have used Reprints Desk 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018 Rule of 5 Articles 4 25 22 Total Articles Purchased 27 42 46 Average Cost per Article $46.53 $28.99 $37.02 $65.67 $91.15

Reprints Desk Workflow Click “Retrieve Order Estimate” in Reprints Desk ribbon Add ‘Awaiting Reprints Desk Processing’ flag Type REPRINTS in Lending String and Lender field and select OTH under System ID Click “Create Order” Click ‘Request Sent’ Borrowing article request comes in Determine it needs purchased If article has hit Rule of 5, it will go in a queue called “Awaiting GetItNow Processing” and we know that we need to purchase it from Reprints Desk Receive emails from Reprints Desk about article order and delivery Remove flag after double checking that article was “Delivered to Web”

Reprints Desk Request

Reprints Desk Use Began using it in mid-2016 Requested ~99 articles in the last two years We discovered that in addition to ordering recent articles, we have had success with getting many of the more obscure and hard to get articles

Results

Improvements.... 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017 2017-2018 Items Borrowed 992 1368 1999 2480 2277 2314 Borrowing Requests Cancelled 245 151 135 177 196 204 Borrowing Fill Rate 79.87% 90.30% 96.24% 93.09% 96.36% 91.90% Turnaround Time (days) 8.6 4.2 3.4 3.7 3.2 3.06 Doc Del Filled 160 (articles) 470 969 1034 858 1056 5.6 1.3 1.2 1.5 21.07 hours Items Loaned 978 1161 1225 1154 1245 1077 Lending Requests Cancelled 927 464 501 719 594 491 Lending Fill Rate 51.34% 68.54% 68.94% 61.03% 66.76% 68.08% Total Number of Transactions 3147 3614 4829 5564 5170 5142 Cancelled requests dramatically decreased and borrowing fill rate increased after implementing purchases and better tracking of doc del Total number of transactions also significantly increased over four years The numbers seem to have remaining fairly steady, if not decreasing somewhat...need to consider why this might be – maybe some more training in processing. Lending turnaround time is currently around 12 hours

Observations We have been able to increase the number of requests filled as well as the fulfillment rate Turnaround time has improved significantly Users are often surprised with how quickly we get materials for them or that we are able to get the obscure requests Process is seamless for users Users don’t need to figure out if the library has the item and then decide whether to request through ILL or make a purchase request. They just need to submit an ILL request and we’ll get it for them. Mention link resolver and link to ILL request

Adjustments Since 2013 Began using Reprints Desk, as discussed All purchases are entered in a spreadsheet which helps with analysis later Staff and students are doing more of the ILL processing More education on ILL  Research Guide Book purchasing budget: ~$5,000 Article purchasing budget: ~$2,000

Where To Go From Here Further collection analysis Which subject areas are purchased most? Continue evaluating journal titles requested and look at trends Continue working on coordinated collection development efforts Better purchase rubric as staff take on more ILL responsibilities Staff and students are doing more of the day to day ILL workflow Consider even more efficient ways of making the process seamless and quick for users Alma/Primo & Tipasa....???? Workflow details may change, but we hope to continue the same level of service (if not better!) Collection development considerations

Ruth Owens SUNY ESF (VXF) rmowens@esf.edu Questions? Ruth Owens SUNY ESF (VXF) rmowens@esf.edu