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Learner guide: WorldShare ILL - Lending

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Course objectives

This learner guide is part of the WorldShare ILL Lending courses. The objectives of the OCLC WorldShare Interlibrary Loan Lending courses: Configuration for Lenders and Manage and respond requests are to guide you through the available functionalities in the service for lending libraries and provide options that speed the fulfillment of interlibrary loan requests to save time for your staff and users when answering ILL requests. We recommend that you take the Introduction to WorldShare ILL courses first to learn about the basic concepts of the service and the configuration options.

Course evaluation

After completing the course and course quiz, please take a few moments to complete a brief survey for each course:

WSILL Lending - Configurations for Lenders

WSILL Lending - Manage and respond requests

OCLC Interlibrary Loan glossary 

Would you like to know what all those ILL terminologies mean? Well, find the infomation on the OCLC Interlibrary Loan glossary.

OCLC Profile groups 

OCLC Profiled groups are groups created by OCLC on behalf of libraries.  OCLC Profiled groups are curated lists of libraries that use the OCLC resource sharing network and share common attributes, such as geographic location, membership in an organization, subject matter, or other characteristics.  Profiled groups enable more efficient and targeted resource sharing among libraries. Profiled groups help you to identify resource sharing partners. Consider which libraries make your best borrowing and lending partners based on geography, group membership, subject matter, or another attribute. 

Set up for lending

OCLC Policies Directory

Add or update your library’s information in the OCLC Policies Directory. Some key areas to review include Collections and Policies for copy, loan, and deflections. See Prepare and Plan to find documentation and short video tutorials on this topic.

Once logged in to WorldShare Interlibrary loan, click the link from the WorldShare Interlibrary Loan Home screen to go to the OCLC Policies Directory.

Deflections

Deflection is a feature that allows lending libraries to set up for the system to automatically say “no” to requests for those items that don’t circulate outside the library for any reason. Lending libraries can set up deflections under their OCLC Policies Directory page for individual items or collections. See how to set up Deflections policies.

Deflection types

Type
                                                                                               Where
Supplier status OCLC Policies Directory
Category level WorldShare Collection manager, WorldShare License manager, OCLC Policies Directory
Item level WorldShare Record manager

Deflection type definition:

  • Supplier status = Yes or No supplier under Profile tab
  • Category level =  All items of a particular type (i.e., all electronic serials)
  • Item level = An specific individual item (i.e., a journal or book title)

Constant data 

Maintain administrative settings for WorldShare Interlibrary Loan, such as constant data, in OCLC Service Configuration. Click the link from the WorldShare Interlibrary Loan Home screen to go to OCLC Service Configuration.

Constant data allows you to create data records, including your library’s information, that can be saved and applied to lending requests. Constant data saves you time while creating or answering ILL requests. See  Lender Data to find documentation and a short video tutorial on how to create constant data as a  Lender.

Custom holdings 

The Custom Holdings feature allows you to pre-select  your priority borrowing libraries to be applied to your requests. Custom Holdings can be used to set  ILL policies as a Lending library. First you create your Custom Holdings Group(s) to select the libraries, then you define your Custom Holdings Path for the group(s).

You can add an OCLC Profiled Group you are part of to your custom holdings path after your library joins that group.

Knowledge Base integration

The knowledge base integration is a setting that allows you to select if you want the system to look through your WorldCat knowledge base collections, when you process a lending request, to determine whether your library has electronic access to the requested item. When turned on, this setting will cause a link to appear in the Request Details accordion of a borrowing or lending request if the item is held by your library in the WorldCat knowledge base.

Automation

Automation allows you to pre-define rules for the system to automatically check your library's ILL policies and only send to your Can you Supply? queue those requests that your library is ready to answer, according to your criteria. Automation can be configured in the OCLC Service Configuration under Automated Request Manager to help your library staff to speed up the processing of answering ILL requests.

Try a self-paced training

Real-time availability

Real-time availability connects your OCLC interlibrary loan service to your library’s local catalog to determine if a requested item is available. When your library is the current lender in the string, real-time availability checks the item’s status in your local system.

Manage requests

Your requests appear in the left navigation menu, and under Quick Links on the WorldShare ILL home screen. The main categories are listed first, followed by sub-categories for easier organization. Click a category to see all requests in that category. Learn about the Categories and queues descriptions.

 Note: Categories with no current requests will not appear in the list.

Respond to requests (Can You Supply? queue)

Find details on types of responses on Respond to requests where you can find instructions and short video tutorials on how to:

  • Respond yes to a loan or copy request
  • Respond no to a request
  • Respond conditionally to a request
  • Respond to a renewal request

For details on how to batch respond to requests, see Batch processing for lenders. For details on how to Complete/Close requests, see Complete requests.

OCLC Article Exchange

OCLC Article Exchange provides a single secure location where lending libraries can place requested articles for interlibrary loan when answering to copy requests. It allows users to upload files for pickup anywhere in the world. Only authorized users will be able to download the file.

You can find further information about Article Exchange.

Off-System Requesting 

You can add requests created outside of WorldShare ILL into the system to become part of your statistics reports. You can either create or reuse a requests and route them to off-system request queue. For details see Off-System Lending.

Printing options

Add and customize book straps, stickers, and shipping labels for printing. Refer to Printing for Lenders for instructions and short tutorial videos.

Statistics reports

Learn more about how you can generate statistics reports to support your ILL activities.

Test your knowledge

Try this quiz: WSILL Lending quiz

Supplemental information

The OCLC Support site connects you to our highly skilled support staff and valuable self-serve resources. These include extensive documentation for OCLC’s products and services, helpful troubleshooting instructions, and other materials to answer your questions.

You’ve made it to the end of the Learner Guide! Allow me to take this opportunity to thank you for attending the WorldShare ILL - Lending class! 

We look forward to seeing you in the next class!