Spilling Out of the Funnel: How Reliance Upon Interlibrary Loan Affects Access to Information

Academic libraries that cancel serials titles typically offer interlibrary loan (ILL) as an alternative means to access these titles.This study examines how serials cancellations affect ILL usage and how reliance on ILL affects patrons’ access to content. By analyzing the number of ILL requests from canceled titles, the authors found that cancellations have a very small effect upon overall ILL usage. With the help of Google Analytics, the authors counted patron requests for link resolver access that were converted to ILL requests. When the link resolver was unable to generate a link to full text, it displayed a message to that effect on a link resolver landing page and presented the patron with a choice to request the title through ILL. Google Analytics recorded traffic to and from the link resolver landing page and generated a data set for this study. Analysis of collected data, including ILLiad records, shows that after patrons identify desired articles that require ILL, they only submit ILL requests 31 percent of the time. This means that for every successful ILL request, there are at least two articles desired that are never requested. Implications for collection development are discussed.

[1]  Chuck Becker.  Student Values and Research: Are Millennials Really Changing the Future of Reference and Research? , 2009 .

[2]  Jody Condit Fagan,et al.  The Suitability of Web Analytics Key Performance Indicators in the Academic Library Environment , 2014 .

[3]  Wayne Loftus.  Demonstrating Success: Web Analytics and Continuous Improvement , 2012 .

[4]  Jeffrey M. Mortimore.  Access-Informed Collection Development and the Academic Library , 2006 .

[5]  Jeanie M. Welch.  Is there life after serials cancellation , 1996 .

[6]  M. Crump,et al.  Serials Cancellations and Interlibrary Loan: The Link and What it Reveals , 1995 .

[7]  J. Cory Tucker,et al.  Using Link Resolver Reports for Collection Management , 2009 .

[8]  Michael A. Norman,et al.  SFX Statistical Reports: A Primer for Collection Assessment Librarians , 2009 .

[9]  Julie Arendt,et al.  Beyond Description: Converting Web Site Usage Statistics into Concrete Site Improvement Ideas , 2010 .

[10]  Sara Memmott,et al.  Tracking the Elusive Student: Opportunities for Connection and Assessment , 2010 .

[11]  Jonathan Nabe,et al.  Leaving the “Big Deal”: Consequences and Next Steps , 2011 .

[12]  Tabatha Farney,et al.  Chapter 1: Introducing Google Analytics for Libraries , 2013 .

[13]  Wei Fang,et al.  Measuring Law Library Catalog Web Site Usability: A Web Analytic Approach , 2008 .

[14]  Kate Marek.  Using Web Analytics in the Library , 2011 .

[15]  Martin Ebner,et al.  Web analytics of user path tracing and a novel algorithm for generating recommendations in Open Journal Systems , 2013, Online Inf. Rev..

[16]  Joan G. Lamborn,et al.  Document delivery in times of shrinking budgets , 1996 .

[17]  Elizabeth L. Black.  Web Analytics: A Picture of the Academic Library Web Site User , 2009 .

[18]  Thomas L. Kilpatrick,et al.  Serial cuts and interlibrary loan: filling the gaps , 1996 .

[19]  Christopher J. Prom.  Using Web Analytics to Improve Online Access to Archival Resources , 2011 .

[20]  Justin L. Otto,et al.  Have link resolvers helped or hurt? The relationship between ILL and OpenURL at a non-SFX library , 2013, OCLC Syst. Serv..

[21]  Sue Kaczor,et al.  Variation in Interlibrary Loan Use by University at Albany Science Departments , 1997 .

[22]  J. Hughes.  Can Document Delivery Compensate for Reduced Serials Holdings? A Life Sciences Library Perspective , 1997 .

[23]  Edward S. Warner.  The impact of interlibrary access to periodicals on subscription continuation/cancellation decision making , 1981, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[24]  Paul Betty.  Assessing Homegrown Library Collections: Using Google Analytics to Track Use of Screencasts and Flash-Based Learning Objects , 2009 .

[25]  Robert L. Bothmann,et al.  Assessing Undergraduate Interlibrary Loan Use , 2008 .

[26]  Mark G. Stengel.  Using SFX to Identify Unexpressed User Needs , 2005 .

[27]  Judith M. Nixon.  Using a Database Management Program as a Decision Support System for the Cancellation of Business Periodicals and Serials , 2000 .

[28]  Mary Dabney Wilson,et al.  Automated Interlibrary Loan/Document Delivery Data Applications for Serials Collection Development , 1999 .

[29]  Katherine S. Dabbour,et al.  The Myths and Realities of SFX in Academic Libraries , 2006 .

[30]  Andrea L. Duda,et al.  Validating Journal Cancellation Decisions in the Sciences: A Report Card , 1998 .

[31]  Steven J. Turner.  Website Statistics 2.0: Using Google Analytics to Measure Library Website Effectiveness , 2010 .