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OCLC ILL Basics and Tricks |
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Lesson #1, Introduction to OCLC, Constant Data, Searching WorldCat
Lesson #2, Looking at Holdings, Sending Request
Lesson #3, Basic ILL Cycle, the Request Manager and Batch Processing
Lesson #4, ILL Guidelines, Union List Information and ILL Policies
Lesson #3, Basic ILL Cycle, the Request Manager and Batch Processing
The Course so far ...
We've done some of the essential set up work for using the OCLC WRS system effectively. We've explored searching for materials and finding the best libraries to borrow the items our patrons want. Finally last week we created a bunch of brand spanking new ILL requests and sent them off to our play partner accounts. Now it's time to put the whole ILL processing workflow into context, go over the details of tracking and updating requests and check out some nifty ways to be more efficient at updating.
You can contact me by using the Discussion function within the Desire2Learn courseware, or at times it might be better to email me directly at:
Course hint. If you have a large enough computer screen you might want to try opening up 2 or more browser windows. One to display the course itself in it's Desire2Learn environment. The other window would be to the OCLC WorldCat Resource Sharing system so you can follow along with the lesson. Log in instructions are given below with special play authorizations for you to use listed in the Assignment area at the bottom of this page.
Here's a graphic flowchart style representation of the ILL Cycle Workflow. This uses OCLC terminology but the essential approach is the same regardless of ILL systems including going all the way back to ALA 4 part paper forms.
To talk through it a bit.
Everything starts with the Borrowing library creating a request.
It gets sent to a potential Lender.
The Lender fills it either Yes or No.
If No then the request cycles back to another Lender or to the Borrower as Unfilled.
If Yes the Lender fills the request and Ships it To the Borrower.
The Borrower Receives the item and determines if the request is a Returnable (book) or Non-Returnable (photocopies from a journal).
If a Non-Returnable the Borrower delivers to their patron and the transaction is done.
If it's a Returnable the Borrower routes the item to and from their patron and then Returns the item to the Lender.
When the Lender gets the item back they Complete the process.
In the next section we start to go through this workflow using the OCLC system designed specifically to make the process both as complete as possible and as easy as possible.
The Request Manager is that magic space in the WorldCat Resource Sharing system where you can view all of your outstanding requests, both Borrower and Lender, and act upon them. You can search for them and use them to start new requests. It is your daily work space and one of the joys of the system is that it automatically only allows you to act upon a request in a manner that's appropriate at that given time. That is it won't allow you to move a request into a status that just isn't possible at that time. At every juncture the system presents you with just those options that are possible. It makes things go quite quick and smooth.
Once logged into WRS just click on the Resource Sharing tab.
There's your Borrowing section on the left and your Lending section on the Right. Plus a Search your requests box just above. You might also note that only those categories where you have active requests are displayed. Click on the number of requests associated with a category to then view a list of those requests.
In the list views you'll see the ILL number, OCLC calls it Request Identifier, plus other information such as the Title, the Status, the Lender String and where the request is in the Lender String (look for the asterisk). Different categories have slightly different information in the list view. Click on the request number to see the full individual request that you can act upon.
We're starting off by looking at the full request for a Pending request. This is a Lender category and the requests here are brand new to you requests asking for materials. You'll note that the 5 options available to you are displayed at the top. Those are the only things you can do. Let's go over them.
The In Process status option is already checked for you. This simply indicates that you've looked at this request, but haven't done anything else about it yet.
Yes means you are going to fill the request. You choose this option when you have the item in hand and are ready to send it off. You can use the Constant Data drop down to apply any specific CD you've created and want to apply to this specific request.
No moves the request on to the next lender immediately. Use the drop down to tell the Borrower in general why you said No. Better yet the reasons for no become part of the statistics on that request for you to analyze later.
Conditional says you can fill the request if certain provisions are met. For example they provided you with a bad citation, if they correct the citation you'll be able to fill the request for them. You can have pre-written conditional notes and use the drop down to access them. You set this up in the Admin area/Staff ILL Settings/Saved Notes. Or you can just type in your condition in the empty text box provided
Future Date is the oddest of all, but on rare occasions quite useful. You the Lender are stating that you can not fill this request at the moment, but will be able to fill it in the future, in fact after the specific date you provide. The request returns to the lender string, and if it is NOT filled and returns to the Borrower, then the Borrower can determine if they want to wait until your date and have you fill it. Assuming they do then the request magically re-appears in your Pending file on that date for you to fill. This is a very valuable tool for items that are quite rare and only owned by a couple of libraries. Otherwise it's not used much at all.
In all cases, after you determine what your response should be by checking your local catalog and shelves etc., and you click on the appropriate button at the top of the request, remember to click the Update button.
Now let's look closer at each of the major updating categories.
Yes
When you click Yes you are presented with another view of the request.
This gives you the opportunity to make additional edits to the request before you send it off to the Borrower. Most important would be making sure the Due Date is correct. Either a date for a returnable, or N/A for a non-returnable photocopy. This is how the system knows which category this request falls into, so making sure your Due Date is correct is important. Other fields to consider editing are your Lending Charges, IFM, Return to address and Return Via delivery method. Remember a well constructed Constant Data can cover all these areas. You can see that you can apply a different CD even now. When your editing is complete once again click on the Update button.
You're rewarded with the "Record has been updated: xxxxxx" message. Except when you are creating new requests, you know you've updated an item correctly when you get this kind of message.
No
Click the No radio button and use the drop down to choose your Reason for No. Then click the Update button and you are done.
As above success is indicated by the usual "Record has been updated" message.
Navigation
The screen always displays several navigation options as you process your requests. From a full request you can Return to the list display. From both the request and the updated screen you can go to the Previous or to the Next request in the list you're working on. From an updated display you can Redisplay Request. And you can always go back to the Request Manager.
Conditional
The Conditional option allows you to set up pre-written text to enter for you condition to lend. Use the drop down to choose, or just enter plain text into the open text box. Remember to click the Update button.
and success is indicated by the usual "Record has been updated" message.
Future Date
Future Date has a nice built in calendar pop up to use for selecting the date your copy of the requested item will be available. Remember Future Date use is infrequent and should be reserved for rare materials. Click that Update button.
and success is indicated by the usual "Record has been updated" message.
Receive
Receive is a borrowing function and you use it to indicate that you have physically received the requested material. When the Lender updates your request to Yes, then it enters into the Shipped category in your Borrowing list.
The list of Shipped items includes the Patron name, which is a handy bit of information to have when scanning for specific items.
There is only one option with a Shipped status request. You can Receive it, and that's it. Note the Request History. Reasons for no also show in this area for each library that handles the request. Click the Update button.
and success is indicated by the usual "Record has been updated" message.
Return
Returns are when you the Borrower have gotten the materials back from your patron and you are now in the process of sending them back to the Lender. First you need to find the request itself. The fastest way is to Search for the request using the search box on the Request Manager page (soon to be on almost all the staff side pages). More on searching below, but you can easily search on the OCLC request number, or the patron name or the title.
This was a simple title search. Use the drop down to choose your search index. Like above you have limited options as to what you can do to update this request. To Return with Today's Date, just go with the default and click the Update button.
and success is indicated by the usual "Record has been updated" message.
Complete
When you as the Lender get your material back from the Borrower then you Complete the request. Go to the Returned category to find the request. Sometimes material is sent back to you before the Borrower has updated to Returned. That's OK. Just find the request using the Search box and you should be able to update to Complete from any of their current status.
In this case we have only 1 request in our category so we go directly to that request. As is often the case there is only option. It's chosen by default, so click the Update button and you're done.
and success is indicated by the usual "Record has been updated" message.
Conditional Response
When a Lender sends you a Conditional update, it appears in the Borrowing section under the Conditional category.
The request itself gives you 3 choices. From the bottom up, you can give up on the Request all together with a Delete, you can Not Accept the Lenders condition which moves the request to the next lender which is usually NOT a good choice, or you can Accept the Lenders condition which is the default. Notice that the Lenders condition is very nicely and strongly shown right there.
Updating to I accept brings the Request back because you usually need to edit it in order to comply with the Lenders condition. So edit and then click that good old Update button.
and now success is indicated by the usual "Record has been updated" message.
Renewal Request
Your patron wants to keep the item longer. So you ask the lender for a Renewal. Again use the Search box to find the request. Click the Renewal Request radio button. You can use the calendar pop up to specify a date you'd like to keep the item until. But that's actually kind of rude. Instead type the word "ANY" into the box and allow the lender to determine how much additional time, if any, you'll get. Click Update.
and success is indicated by the usual "Record has been updated" message.
Renewal Request Response
Renewal Requests show in their own category on the Lending side.
There are more choices than usual here, but they are really pretty much the same ones. From the bottom up, if you've received the item back from the Borrower already just Complete it, if you need it back immediately then Recall it, if you can't renew it then go with No Renewal, and finally if you can renew the item choose Renewal OK. There's the calendar pop up to make entering a New Due Date easy. If you look down the request a bit you'll see that the Borrower was polite and asked for ANY additional time. Click Update when you've decided.
and success is indicated by the usual "Record has been updated" message.
Recall
Supposing you need an item you loaned out back ASAP. You can Recall that item. Find it using the Search box and then simply choose the default Recall update.
and success is indicated by the usual "Record has been updated" message.
Unfilled
There on the Borrowing side is the category of Unfilled. Requests which went to all the lenders you listed and none of them could fill the request. You can Delete Record and give up. Or you can click New and try again.
The New button creates a brand new request to complete, it also automatically carries over all the information from the old request. So for example you don't have to re-type the patron information. Often you just supply a new lender string. Please do not use the same lenders again. They already said No once. This is a new request so you click the Submit button
and success is indicated this time by the redisplay on the request with a new Request number.
One of the slickest utilities built into the Request Manager is the Search all requests for: box. The searching index drop down has 9 different index keys to choose from and they all work quite well. If you routinely fill in the Patron field with just their name you'll always be able to immediately find your patrons requests with a simple search.
You can also easily find out all the requests you have sent to a specific lending library, or see all the requests that have been sent by a specific borrower to you. All useful searches.
Searching is most routinely performed with returnable items that are in use and they have just been placed into your hands either to return to the lender, or they've been sent back to you by the borrower.
Here are some quite long URLs for additional documentation to everything above:
WorldCat Resource Sharing Quick Reference
http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/resourcesharing/using/refcard/WCRS.pdf
Pay particular attention to the last page which lists all the Request Manager categories and what to do with them.
Request Manager Categories
http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/resourcesharing/using/statuslist/default.htm
Is the web site listing of all those categories.
Searching Requests in Request Manager
http://www.oclc.org/support/documentation/resourcesharing/using/searchrequests/
Another web site that details the whole searching process and all the tricks.
All of that individual request updating detailed above can also be done in a batch mode. Click the Batch button in Request Manager see all the update categories listed.
Choose a category and see one kind of display below, in this case for saying Yes as a Lender to a Pending request. All batch updating starts from typing in the Request Identifier number. Then simply doing those one or two added bits to complete each update. Batching can be quite fast. The real trick is to hook up a bar code scanner to your ILL work station and simply wand in the ReqID direct from a printed Request. No typos and just faster than greased lightning.
When you've finished doing all your updating in all the pertinent categories, then you click the Update All Categories button. It will run quite fast. You can Print a report when your done if you wish.
Printing is very flexible and easy. The one caveat at the moment is you can only print up to a maximum of 100 requests at a time. Start in the Request manager at the Printing area. You can choose to just view requests or to print them.
All the categories are displayed and there's a number after each indicating how many requests are in each category. This makes it easier to determine how to arrange your batches of printing to not exceed the 100 requests maximum. You can print full requests, one request per page, or 2 requests per page.
Click Print or View and away you go.
There's that lovely bar code which could make your life ever so much easier when it comes to updating too.
We have 2 play accounts to use in the course. These accounts can be used in a way to experience the full WRS system but without interfering with regular ILL work being done by other libraries. In order to share our 2 accounts we'll divide usage alphabetically by last name:
If your last name falls between Andrew and Melanz, use
autho number: 100-017-631
password: tie
If your last name falls between Meulemans and Zlosel, use
autho number: 100-017-630
password: try
There's an abundance of requests in both accounts. Start updating. If you run out of requests, make some more. Don't be afraid to jump accounts, that is use the other folks autho too. If you do play with the batch function please don't batch more than a couple of requests at a time. Leave requests to be updated by others. As always creativity makes it more fun for me to review the records. Try to add your name to any of the editing work you do so I can keep some track of peoples comings and goings.
For the discussion part, after you've made a grand ole mess of the Request Manager then log onto the discussion section of our Desire2Learn course and tell everyone at least:
one updating option that makes absolutely no sense what so ever
what you love about searching for your requests
why batch processing brings a song to your heart
and finally read the discussions of your classmates and respond to them.
I'll be monitoring and participating too.