Neither beg, borrow, nor steal: Purchasing interlibrary loan requests at an academic library

Abstract

The University of California Irvine Libraries conducted a series of pilot projects involving staff from access services, acquisitions, and collection development to purchase interlibrary loan requests of print books, ebooks, and articles. Staff measured the cost of interlibrary loan services and the time to delivery and improved the workflow through existing technology. In many cases, the library was able to purchase titles and get them to the patron more quickly than through traditional interlibrary loan. This purchasing service is now part of The University of California Irvine normal library procedures.

Keywords::

• Acquisitions
• borrowing
• collection development
• interlibrary loan
• pay-per-view
• purchase on demand