1. From Big Deal to Big Service
Creating a Rush Delivery Service for Faculty
Nora Allred, Michigan Technological University Great Lakes Resource Sharing Conference, June 10, 2016

2. Prologue
Breaking up is hard to do

3. Fall 2014
Years of flat budgets Dwindling gift funds Unsatisfactory negotiations with providers

4. An Unpleasant Truth
Our current subscription packages were unsustainable in our fiscal environment

5. A Tough Decision
Large bundled or “big deal” subscriptions with Elsevier and Springer were abandoned for 2015

6. Part One
Where do we go from here

7. Create an Optimal Collection
Faculty identified most essential titles for their research
Historical usage data carefully analyzed
Borrowing patterns examined
Title-level subscription costs considered

8. Create an Optimal Collection
Faculty identified most essential titles for their research
Historical usage data carefully analyzed
Borrowing patterns examined
Title-level subscription costs considered
Result: A lean, yet targeted collection of subscribed journals

9. Create an Optimal Service
Not all “essential” titles could be included in subscriptions
Library would provide an expedited service for providing essential content on demand from faculty
Interlibrary Loan was the logical place for our new service

10. Create an Optimal Service
Not all “essential” titles could be included in subscriptions
Library would provide an expedited service for providing essential content on demand from faculty
Interlibrary Loan was the logical place for our new service
Serials budget would pay for service
Result: An effective rush service for faculty

11. Part Two
We can work it out

12. Ideal Service Model Easy/intuitive for faculty to use
High-quality PDF scans
Service available seven days a week
Delivery in four hours or less
Manageable workflow for staff

13. Considered but Discarded Models
Direct purchase accounts
Hard to monitor budget allocations
Track multiple vendors
Mediated token accounts
Confusing interface
Undue burden on staff
RapidILL Document Supplier pod
Could not ensure a four-hour or less delivery
Five day a week service

14. Selected Service model
Reprints Desk Academic A to Z addon with ILLiad
Faculty were already familiar with ILLiad
A single “brand neutral” system
Reprints Desk Academic A to Z collection contained most of the titles we dropped
Reprints Desk guaranteed four-hour or less delivery via Odyssey

15. Part Three
Cha, Cha, Cha, Changes

16. Changes made to provide service
ILLiad webpages and client
Days and hours of service
Staffing and workflow

17. ILLiad: RUSH option added to article request form in faculty accounts

18. ILLIad: Routing rules and RUSH queue created in staff client

19. ILLiad: “RUSH Unavailable” custom email
Requests submitted as outside RUSH service hours
Content unavailable through Reprints Desk A to Z Academic Service
Incomplete or unverified citations

20. Schedule for Service
ILL borrowing expanded from five to seven days a week
Ensure all requests were processed daily
Reduce delivery times overall
RUSH scheduled for “peak” service hours:
9:00AM – 5:00PM Monday through Friday
1:00PM – 5:00PM Saturday and Sunday

21. Strategic Use of Staff ILL staff covered bulk of RUSH request hours
Access Services staff already performed ILL lending and document delivery services
Trained Access Services staff scheduled during evenings and weekends in RUSH processing and “borrowing backup”
37 staff hours available weekly to support RUSH service

22. RUSH and “Borrowing Backup” Procedures
Hours and purposes of services
Illustrated step-by-step workflow
Process for “RUSH unavailable”
Backup borrowing a narrowly defined, simplified version of regular borrowing
Allowed easy requests to be processed and filled daily
All challenging requests

23. Part Four
Every picture tells a story

24. RUSH pilot March through August 2015
Half of Spring term and all of Summer term
Aimed to serve faculty doing research

25. Total article requests from faculty
341

26. RUSH requests
195
57%

27. Filled as RUSH
168
86%

28. Received and filled outside RUSH hours24
12%

29. Unfilled 3 2%

30. Average RUSH article cost
$24.50

31. 129 41 22 When RUSH Service Used Schedule Mon – Fri: 9-5 Evenings
Weekends
Number of Requests Received
129 41 22

32. Top 5 Departments Using RUSH
Total RUSH Requests
Number of Faculty Placing Requests
Materials Science 68 5
Humanities 30 7
Mechanical Engineering 24
Social Sciences 11
Mathematics 10 1

33. Epilogue
Baby what a big surprise

34. Survey Results Extremely low response rate (less than 1%)
“Satisfied” with RUSH service
Interlibrary loan service “Very Important” to scholarly activities
Comment: “Regular ILL is so fast, I don’t need to use RUSH”

35. What we don’t know (and dare we ask?)
How many faculty “phone a friend” at another institution?
I Can Haz a PDF?
SciHub?
We will try another survey round in the fall

36. Staff do see a “Big Picture”
Staff used the library’s “pull and scan” service to fill RUSH requests
This was not included in procedure
Service not practical for filling RUSH requests
Staff were concerned about costs
July 17, 2015
A bad day in RUSH processing
A very, very bad day….

37. Redefining the “Big Picture”
Processes and methods are not enough
Rationale for a new service is not enough
Staff must be given explicit instructions AND the logic behind them

38. Questions? Thank you! Nora Allred Van Pelt & Opie Library
Michigan Technological University