Statistics day

At the end of the month, all of the library's departments scurry around collecting numbers and statistics to quantify what we do - and interlibrary loan is no different.

At CCPL, we are fortunate enough to have Clio (http://www.cliosoftware.com), an Access-based program that compiles our requests and helps us turn them into statistical reports. It is much easier for us than counting a large pile of forms or entries in a notebook. The Access platform enables us to generate all kinds of statistics, including average delivery time (9.8 days for 2007).

So how did we do this month? We had 836 requests, counting requests for renewals. We were able to fill 573 of them (69 percent), including 23 items that CCPL already owned. We have 105 requests still outstanding, which means no library has shipped the items as of today. If all of those requests are filled, we will reach 678 requests filled (81 percent).

On the lending side, we received 312 requests to borrow or renew items, of which we filled 156 (50 percent). Our most common reason for not lending an item is that we do not own it (despite what OCLC may say about our holdings).

Over the last three years, our total requests on both borrowing and lending sides have increased close to 10 percent each year. We are busy, busy, busy and we like it!

Will I be notified if my item is unavailable?

Absolutely. We usually send hot pink postcards when this happens, which are designed to be an attention-grabber. We will send e-mail if an e-mail address is included on the request.

We don't telephone when items are unavailable. When we did this, people started showing up at the library thinking they could pick up an item, instead of listening to the message stating that the item was *NOT* available.

If you have questions regarding the status of your interlibrary loan request, please feel free to contact us at 805-6940 or i l l (at) c c p l (dot) org.

Can you get things for college students?

Yes, but you may wish to know of some options that may get you what you need faster.

Many college libraries in South Carolina subscribe to a service called Polaris. This interagency service transfers items between South Carolina college libraries in as little as three working days. If the item you need is not in South Carolina, college libraries subsidize interlibrary loan requests for their students. Many academic libraries will not lend to public libraries, or charge a hefty fee to them for the loan of materials.

About textbooks: just-published textbooks are usually not available via interlibrary loan; mainly because the expense makes libraries reluctant to release them. Some libraries will lend textbooks to public libraries. However, you may only get to keep the item a short time, and certainly not the length of a full academic semester. While we sympathize with the difficulty and expense of buying and reselling textbooks, we cannot buy everyone's textbooks for them, or keep other libraries' books indefinitely. Failure to return items on time jeopardizes our ability to borrow items for others in the future.

Is there anything you can't get?

We have received many requests that we were unable to fill, for a variety of reasons.

• Reason 1: No library wants to lend the item. This can happen with very rare items, older publications, and hard-to-replace genealogical material. It also frequently happens with DVDs, videos, and CDs - very few libraries are willing to let these items out.
• Reason 2: Some libraries may be willing to lend the item, but charge a fee to do so. Many academic libraries charge $20.00 or more to lend items to public libraries.
• Reason 3: The item has just been released or published. No library wants to let a recently acquired item vanish from their collection, when their taxpaying patrons may want it.
• Reason 4: The item was scheduled to be published, but has been delayed. If no one has the item, we cannot obtain it.
• Reason 5: Citation errors. With the advent of the Internet, more information is available on a variety of topics. Unfortunately, some people's citation lists are not as accurate as others; titles may be misquoted and misappropriated. Other people refer to these pages, and the errors perpetuate themselves.
• Reason 6: The item may not be available in the format you want. We have had increasing demand for books on CD; they are not released fast enough for the just-published book to have a CD format, unless it is a guaranteed best-seller.

We will do our best to obtain the items requested, but not everything ever published is available for interlibrary loan. We can usually fill 75-80 percent of the requests we get.

That library in the wilds of Alaska has the book I want

The Internet has provided us with numerous ways to locate information and items to borrow - library catalogs, WorldCat.org, Amazon, historical society websites - just about everyone has links to resources on every topic.

So you've found a library that owns the item you want - what can the interlibrary loan department do for you?

Keep in mind that the library that owns the item may not be willing to lend it out or may charge fees for loaning items to CCPL. If the lending library charges a fee, the fee is passed on to the person ordering the item.

Since most people want free items, the interlibrary loan department will begin locating free lenders geographically. We start with South Carolina libraries, then move to North Carolina and Georgia, then expand our search as needed. Most of our items are located at libraries within the southeast.

So if you want that book from Alaska, please know that we will try to locate a lending library closer to us first, so that you can get your book faster!