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Fall 2002
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Elsewhere in this issue you may read in more detail about a new software package—ILLiad—recently implemented by the Pollak Library to improve its interlibrary loan services. Please take a look at ILLiad and assess its utility to your needs. A good place to begin this is the ILLiad registration page at
www.library.fullerton.edu/illiad. ILLiad is another development in a series of expansions and improvements to interlibrary loan services at CSU Fullerton. I ask that you read what follows in this context and then give me the benefit of your thoughts/reactions on how the “just in case” and ”just in time” approaches to providing information services apply to your circumstances and needs.
Once upon a time if your local library—or library of choice—did not have a copy of the book, journal article, or other item you were wanting to read, peruse, or otherwise utilize in meeting your information needs, you were referred to the dreaded “Interlibrary Loan.” In my undergraduate days, once I met with this response, I gave up on the item and looked for something else I could use in writing the soon-due paper. If the library had not acquired what I needed prior to my wanting it (“just in case”), then I seldom had the time to wait for it to be secured physically from another library (“just in time”).
The growing volume of information now available electronically, and the ease with which a library can borrow or secure a fax, photocopy, or electronic copy of many requested documents, has and will continue to change the way library users react when referred to Interlibrary Loan.
A “just in time” approach to meeting user needs is being utilized more and more by academic libraries as they take advantage of changes in availability, deliverability, and affordability of materials secured through Interlibrary Loan. Because of the many and continuing changes in this environment, “document delivery” is increasingly used as a substitute term for the process.
Academic libraries contain materials that experience varying degrees of use—from constant, because an item directly supports the curriculum (and may be placed on reserve by a professor), to little or none because users don’t find it attractive to, or supportive of, their needs. Thus the time lapse from acquisition to first use in a “just in case” environment may be days, years, or still somewhere out there in the future when the right chemistry between the material and a user finally occurs. In times of limited budgetary resources, libraries naturally want to maximize the former and minimize the latter situation.
The Pollak Library remains committed to being as responsive as it can to the needs of campus users, whether this entails purchasing materials and placing them on our shelves, or securing consumable copies and placing these in the hands of users. We will obviously continue to utilize both “just in case” and “just in time” approaches. We will also be very attentive to the costs associated with both approaches and be judicious in choosing between them. Regular and ongoing analysis of interlibrary loan statistics—particularly the frequency of specific requests—is an essential part of this effort, and ILLiad will now provide us with better data.
You can assist us in making good choices. When you have information needs associated with your courses or your research, give some thought as to which materials will be needed frequently, and which may be needed on a one-time-only or infrequent basis. The latter are ideal for “just in time” procurement via ILLiad or other document delivery mechanisms. The former justify an expenditure for a book purchase or placing of a journal subscription. Even mentioning this last possibility makes me a bit nervous lest readers of this think the time has come when new journal subscriptions are being actively entertained by the Library. Our still awaited 2002/03 budget will not support this, but we do remain hopeful that better years and increased flexibility in meeting users needs also await us.
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Richard C. Pollard
University Librarian |
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