The (Almost) Free ILL System for Medical Information DOCLINE: Northwest Interlibrary Loan and Resource Sharing Conference September 11, 2003

Do your library users need access to medical information? For themselves or their families? For their work or school? Beyond the scope of your collection? “Technical” (or not) Regularly or rarely?

DOCLINE Might Help! Interlibrary loan system for sharing medical, health, and related information Like OCLC ILL: Web interface for sending and receiving request Like OCLC ILL: Information about participating libraries; electronic payment; holdings information Like OCLC ILL: Patron-generated requests (via Loansome Doc)

Different from OCLC ILL: Specialized subject focus on medical, health, and related information No connect or transaction charges Primarily used to send requests for, and receive copies of journal articles (more than 95% of traffic) Automatic routing based on lenders’ journal holdings and borrowers’ preferences

DOCLINE Startup Register with National Library of Medicine’s regional representative (that’s me!) Receive user ID and password Enter your library’s profile and serial holdings information Training via Web tutorial, telephone and consultation, some classes

DOCLINE Use Open Web browser (IE 5.x, IE 6.x, Netscape 7 via Windows machine), go to Enter user ID and password Create requests for articles (or books) and system will route them to potential lenders Receive requests from other libraries routed to you based on your holdings Requests route on after 1 day if not receipted

DOCLINE Example PubMed—principal index to biomedical and health journal literature Available via Web to anyone, for free, at Scenario: concerned parent reading about injuries to school kids’ backs from heavy backpacks. Finds references from Spine.

Where Will DOCLINE Send It? Libraries that use DOCLINE: – Hospitals and Academic Medical Centers – Colleges and Universities with Nursing, Veterinary, and Other Health Programs – Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies – Consumer Health Libraries and a few Public Libraries Requests route automatically (based on holdings and preferences)

Serials Holdings Information Must input holdings for at least 25 serials, prefer medical and health-related Serials must be listed in LOCATORplus (NLM’s Online Catalog) Not necessarily medical – General (e.g. Newsweek, Time, U.S. News & World Report) – Business (e.g. Business Week, Forbes,) – Academic non-medical (e.g. Nature, Science, Scientific American) – Others

What’s Different about DOCLINE? DOCLINE only ILL system used by many libraries that specialize in health and medical information Rarely need to look up locations (Automated routing based on serials holdings records) National Library of Medicine prefers to receive requests via DOCLINE

DOCLINE Is Free! (Almost) No charges for joining, no connect or subscription charges for use Connectivity and software: Web access and browser (Your library probably already has) However, some participation requirements: – Input serials holdings information – Read account daily and respond – Keep directory information up-to-date

DOCLINE or OCLC for ILL? DOCLINE focus: articles not complete works OCLC focus: complete works

Why Bother? If frequent needs for medical and health information, DOCLINE best for ILL All U.S. libraries with good medical/health collections use DOCLINE—and give it high priority DOCLINE libraries can participate in FreeShare! – National reciprocal agreement within DOCLINE – Libraries borrow and lend to each other for no charge – 932 libraries participate so far

Borrow-Only: Another Option Use of DOCLINE for borrowing but not lending No requirement to enter serials holdings An option when needs for medical/health information are less frequent FreeShare participation not available—Lenders will charge

Access Without DOCLINE National Library of Medicine accepts ALA forms —but lower priority Pacific Northwest libraries’ serials holdings: Free medical/health journals on the Web:

Questions? Contact your local National Network of Libraries of Medicine’s Regional Medical Library office from within the U.S. at