Integrated interlibrary loans: LIBERTAS at Cranfield

Cranfield Institute of Technology has completed the testing of an interlibrary loans module from SLS (Information Systems) Ltd. which forms part of the LIBERTAS integrated library system. This is significant in that it is one of very few integrated interlibrary loans facilities. The basic aim of this article is to describe the workings of the module in general terms and to discuss some of the implications for libraries. It describes the main problems, both in the installation and in the system itself, and the main advantages, specifically the addition of increased numbers of access points, the loan analyses available, the chasing regimes for lenders and the overall saving of staff time.