Using open access resources to fulfill inter-library loan requests by Lynette Summers

During one of the breakout sessions at the FIL Interlend Conference 2014, Caroline Rauter and I invited delegates to consider the possibilities for and the implications of using open access resources to fulfil inter-library loan requests.

The breakout session kicked off with a short presentation highlighting the fact that open access material is only set to increase and that this needs to be embraced by the inter-library loan community. Delegates were urged to start considering how open access impacts on their workflows and overall service provision. In fact, it became more than apparent during the course of the breakout session that this is something a number of the participants had already begun thinking about.

In the second half of the breakout session, delegates were split into four groups and each group was set a question to contemplate and feed back on. 

The questions were as follows:

1. Has the OA message reached you from within your organisation? How did it reach you?

2. Information seeking: do you ever search for OA material? How do you search for OA material?

3. What are the barriers to fulfilling requests using open access?

4. Workflows: automated or customised software solutions – are you using them?

The questions prompted much animated discussion (phew!) and, as you’ll see from the round-up slides (pp. 8-13), a lot of interesting points. Some of the points had been anticipated, but others, such as the idea that inter-library loan teams charge for their time when fulfilling inter-library loan requests with open access resources, were enlightening (at least to this non-ILL practioner).

Please take some time to look through the slides as a means of becoming more familiar with this topic and prompting further discussion. There is also an Open Access Resources – Discovery Tools page that Caroline put together following the breakout session. The page lists a number of resources where open access material can be found and it is our intention to keep this page up-to-date.

It is hoped that members of the interlending community can benefit from using quality open access content with confidence alongside commercially available content. This should be a rapidly evolving area and one that we will be watching with interest.