Rebecca Belcher Access Services Librarian Appalachian School of Law Library

 We are a stand-alone academic law library with approximately 320 students  We are also a staff of one in our Interlibrary Loan Department  We loan quite a few more books than we borrow  In order of usage, borrowing requests come from Law Review students, professors, staff and other students

 The bulk of articles and books requested for Law Review happens during the fall semester  When I transitioned to WorldShare this spring Law Review requests had already been completed using FirstSearch  FirstSearch was comfortable, easy; I knew what I was doing, I had a routine and everything had a flow

 WorldShare –The change wasn’t all easy With WorldShare everything was different ◦ it was more complex ◦ there were drop down boxes for addresses ◦ it wasn’t forgiving like FirstSearch Probably the biggest issue for me......

The Font Size

FirstSearch WorldShare  All on the page, no drop down boxes for addresses  Forgiving – if I make a mistake, most of the time by hitting the back button or edit button I can go back and fix it  Fast, easy  Drop down boxes for lender and borrower addresses  No edit or back button; if I click the wrong button sometimes my request is gone  More complicated and takes longer

 While I have had challenges there are things about WorldShare to like: longer lender strings, enhanced search, displaying lender costs, etc.  But I’m not here to speak about the positives, I’m here to talk about the challenges I’ve had and overcome

Lending vs Borrowing my experience

 Lending has not been as difficult to learn as borrowing  I started lending material before I even did a tutorial  I don’t advise that because I have learned a lot from the webinars and tutorials

 A very different story  I tried to do it without the tutorial and found I needed much more instruction than I did with lending  Working with borrowing has taken some time but watching those webinars and doing those tutorials have really helped

 While practicing ILL borrowing in WorldShare I toggled back and forth with WorldShare and FirstSearch until I was comfortable borrowing  I only have to do that now if something new pops up

 My number 1 piece of advice is to listen to the webinars and do the tutorials. I would have had a very hard time figuring out how to do borrowing without them  They are excellent and you will learn a lot by listening to them and practicing with the tutorials  I did them over and over, because I learned something new every time

 My second piece of advice is to update your constant data  You do that going to OCLC Interlibrary Loan Home Page, look to the right and choose OCLC Service Configuration  When you start using WorldShare for printing mailing labels, you will be very glad you did!

 My third and final piece of advice is to subscribe to OCLC listservs, if you haven’t already. That way you will know all about any upcoming webinars and anything new about WorldShare