Andrea,

Congrats to you and the rest of the library staff on the new ILLiad system.
As a "heavy" ILL user I can say that it does seem to be a big step forward.

However, I have noticed two things which seem strange, and which you might
want to reconsider.

1. On the old ILL forms, patrons were asked by what date they needed the
requested item, implying that if they needed it soon, the library staff
would do what they could to hurry it up (though I know that it usually
didn't make a difference - items were found as quickly or as slowly as they
were found, and there wasn't a whole lot that could be done). In the new
system, this has been replaced by "Not Wanted After Date (required)", which
is the exact opposite. Does this mean that if the item is not found by this
date, y'all will stop trying? If so, I, for one, will start putting very
late dates on my requests. If that is not what it means, than why ask (and
require!)?

2. The new system purports to give us the opportunity to follow the
progress of requests. But all it really does is tell us that they were sent
out and that the items have arrived. We knew this before, too (at least, I
always assumed that request were processed without delay and that the items
were delivered as soon as they arrived). So what's the big deal? We have no
way of knowing where the requests went or what answers were received. We
can't even cancel requests, one they have been sent out (I tried. Why not,
by the way?). You might think that this information is unnecessary for us
to have, and it may well be, but if so, why the whole thing.

Despite these reservations, I still repeat, "way to go!" Good work.


Yigal



At 04:08 PM 1/8/2003 -0500, Andrea Anderson wrote:
>The Interlibrary Services Department of UTC's Lupton Library is very pleased
>to announce the launch of ILLiad ( http://illiad.lib.utc.edu ), our new
>Interlibrary Loan system.
>
>With ILLiad, each ILL user has his/her own account.  Using this online
>account, the patron can:
>
>Request ILL items
>Check the status of outstanding requests
>Renew checked out interlibrary items
>View past requests
>Edit and resubmit cancelled requests
>
>And, because all ILL requests will be entered through a specific patron's
>account, patron information (addresses, etc.) will only need to be entered
>once.  Patrons can also change their user information at any time.
>
>ILLiad will speed processing of ILL requests by automating many of the
>processes formerly performed by staff members.  When a patron enters a
request
>online, ILLiad automatically enters that information into the ILL system.
>Therefore, staff will no longer have to retype every request.  To fully
>utilize this benefit, all ILL requests must be entered online.
>
>Additionally, ILLiad allows us to automate our ILL notification system for
all
>patrons who have email.  Patrons with functional email address will receive
>Interlibrary Loan notification immediately after items arrive and are
>processed.
>
>
>If you have further questions about ILLiad, you can check out the ILLiad FAQ
>(Frequently Asked Questions) at http://illiad.lib.utc.edu/FAQ.html
>
>As a reminder, all Interlibrary Loan requests are goverened by copyright law.
>For more information about copyright, please visit:
>http://illiad.lib.utc.edu/firsttime.html
>and
>http://www.copyright.com/CopyrightResources/default.asp
>
>
>If you have further questions or comments about ILLiad and Interlibrary
>Services, please contact: [log in to unmask]
>
>For in person assistance using ILLiad, please visit Lupton Library's
Reference
>Desk.
>
>--
>Andrea Anderson
>Asst. Professor and Head, Access Services
>Lupton Library
>University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
>423-425-2668
>[log in to unmask]
>
Dr. Yigal Levin
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
U.S.A.