Conceived as a by‐product of a 1995 customer satisfaction survey on interlibrary loan conducted by members of the Greater Midwest Research Library Consortium (GMRLC), the papers in this collection focus on interlibrary loan (ILL) and document delivery services of academic libraries. They emphasise a range of topics such as assessment, customer satisfaction, workload management, structuring ILL administratively, and software management. An Appendix provides a series of tables from the survey and appropriate data analysis tools. Two of the editors, Weaver‐Myers and Stolt, are faculty of the University of Oklahoma Libraries and involved in the Library Technology Network and state‐wide interlibrary loan. Fong is head of Information Delivery Services at the University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries and has published numerous articles on fee‐based services and interlibrary loan/document delivery.
Cherie Geiser and Rachel Miller first discuss the history of negotiating the GMRLC contract with Federal Express for interstate courier services to members. They review how the service was implemented, lessons learned, effects on shipping costs and delivery speed and changes in procedures and policies. Pat Weaver‐Myers and Wilbur Stolt then examine how customer satisfaction among GMRLC institutions correlates with delivery speed, timeliness, accuracy and other variables in their paper, “Patron satisfaction at any cost? A case study of interlibrary loan in two US research libraries”. They suggest benchmarks and variables that libraries should analyse in deciding where limited resources should be put to maximise benefits and customer satisfaction.
Yem Fong’s paper, “The value of interlibrary loan: an analysis of customer satisfaction survey comments”, is a qualitative analysis of the comments of respondents in a customer satisfaction survey in research environments. It suggests key variables that correlate highly with users’ general satisfaction with ILL services. Variables examined include positive staff interactions, communication with users about the status of their requests, reliability and direct delivery. In the next paper Lee‐Allison Levene compares operations and policies performed at GMRLC institutions with data from surveys at the University of Arkansas‐Fayetteville and Iowa State University in terms of customer satisfaction. This paper suggests the need for research about ILL cost to user benefits.
Nancy Paine and John Ward’s paper, “Changing workloads and productivity in interlibrary loan”, summarises a survey comparing GMRLC and ARL libraries in terms of the ratio between ILL transactions and staff with earlier (1989) data. They compare fill rates and customer satisfaction and discuss how automation, workflow and other factors are related to staff productivity. Fong, Donaldson and Teeter compare ILL management software in their paper, “Interlibrary loan management software: a comparative analysis of SAVEIT, AVISO and PRS”. This helps readers understand the use, limitations, reports, comprehensiveness and strengths of the examined software.
“How much are customers willing to pay for interlibrary loan service?” is the title of Molly Murphy and Yan Lin’s study of user requests for ILL materials at the University of Oklahoma. They draw important conclusions from a review of pass‐through charges, particularly the willingness of students and faculty to pay, or not to pay, for requests. The authors also list and discuss reasons for and against charging, as well as the costs of ILL. John Delaney’s analysis of ZAP, an electronic request system, from its design to implementation at Colorado State University is described in terms of its network applications and results. Similarly, patron‐initiated interlibrary loan for items held by members of the Illinois Library Computer System Organization (ILCSO) is discussed by Barbara Preece and Susan Logue in their paper, “Empowering the patron: redesigning interlibrary loan services”. They further discuss a link on FirstSearch, a Web‐based form, the role of institutional support, and interdepartmental collaboration in these projects.
Brice Hobrock explains why re‐engineering the library, rather than introducing piecemeal change, is necessary to determine how the role of librarians and information will be integrated into the distributed learning, computing and information environment that is currently developing. He focusses on the need for effective consortial partnerships and digital systems for the appropriate re‐engineering of interlibrary loan and document delivery services.
Librarians wanting a valuable, practical resource for assessing customer satisfaction or structuring document delivery services will want to read the papers assembled by three very knowledgeable practitioners.
