ILLs for non-consortium libraries - here from next week

On 25 September we posted that we were trialing providing ILL access to the consortium resources for non-consortium members.  This trial has been ongoing & we're now ready to move to providing access for all libraries.

James Kemperman will commence contacting libraries next week, with instructions and information about how to set up this access.  Roll out to all remaining libraries should only take a couple of weeks.

There are a couple of details that you need to be aware of.  You will need a "slip printer" to print transit slips which will accompany each item and instruct the sorting staff at TOLL where to ship the item to.  You can look at information about slip printers here (passworded).  These slip printers will be required when you join the consortium, so purchasing one now will not be a waste of money.

While being able to print a transit slip is vital, we're also aware that this feature still has a bit of a bug in it.  This will necessitate some hand-writing on these transit slips at this time.  We could wait to get this bug fixed by SirisDynix before releasing access to ILLs, but consider on balance that libraries would rather have access now while we work to fix the issue.

(I should note that while I describe the problem as a "bug" the reality is that we're using the Web version of Symphony in ways that were not originally intended, so it is not surprising that it doesn't do 100% of what we want at the moment.)

It has been agreed that each library will be able to reserve 5 items at a time from other libraries, but as each item arrives and is lent to a customer this will free up that reservation place, allowing a further hold to be placed.  Each library will be able to have up to 30 items on loan from consortium libraries at any one time. 

We have set this limit as a starting point so as not to overwhelm the consortium libraries, and also in recognition that non-consortium libraries also have access to P2 ILLs from each other as well.  We will monitor this limit over time and may be able to adjust it as more libraries join the consortium.

If people have any questions about this roll out please contact James @ PLS.