Creative Communities - BC Library Conference 2015

Interlibrary loan has long been a staple service for academic libraries. For many small to mid-sized institutions, ILL traditionally offered a low-cost - but slow and paper-based - way for libraries to expand user access to resources. Fortunately, new and inexpensive technologies are allowing libraries to re-imagine ILL. Since 2012, Langara College, Emily Carr University, and The Centre for Accessible Post-secondary Education Resources of British Columbia (CAPER-BC) have revamped their ILL and document delivery services using TitanFile, a Canadian post-to-web service that specializes in secure document sharing services. TitanFile has vastly improved delivery times, increased user satisfaction, and generated useful usage data on upload/download rates, more than doubling ILL use at Langara. With online delivery, ILL is increasingly seen as a "patron driven" acquisition tool, helping libraries deal with static budgets and steadily rising journal costs. This session will be of interest to those looking to move to online ILL delivery or explore alternatives to existing document delivery tools. It will demonstrate how tools that were not developed for the library market can be effectively incorporated into library workflows. Ample time will be provided for questions and information sharing about ILL practices.