Skip to main content
OCLC Support

Use the Reasons for No Reports to optimize borrowing and lending

Learn how to access and use the Resource Sharing Borrower and Resource Sharing Lender Reasons for No reports to optimize the fill rates of your ILL operation.

Access the reports

  1. Sign in to the OCLC Usage Statistics portal with your 9-digit ILL authorization and password.  The Usage Statistics are also accessible from the Quick Links section in the staff interface.  
  2. Select OCLC WorldShare Interlibrary Loan from the left-side menu.
  3. Select the Resource Sharing Borrower Reasons For No Report or the Resource Sharing Lender Reasons for No Report.

Resource Sharing Borrower Reasons For No

The Resource Sharing Borrower Reasons For No report contains one month of data at a time and includes each lending library that received a borrowing request from you over the month along with their Reason For No.  You can export this report to Excel and filter requests to those with a Reason For No of Aged To Next Lender or Aged to Unfilled.  

We recommend you identify the lender symbols associated with those reasons, especially if you see the same symbol allowing multiple requests to age, and remove them from your Custom Holdings Groups or deprioritize them by adding them to a separate Custom Holdings Group used last in a Custom Holdings Path. See Custom Holdings Groups and Custom Holdings Paths for more information.

Resource Sharing Lender Reasons for No

The Resource Sharing Lender Reasons For No report contains one month of data at a time and includes each Reason For No sent from your library. You can export this report to Excel and filter requests alphabetically by Reason For No to examine them and consider the recommended follow-up actions as needed.

We recommend that you review your Reasons For No to ensure your requests are not consistently aging to the next lender or to Unfilled.  You can also use this report to see how your deflection policies are working.  If you see requests being auto-deflected that you would not expect to deflect, you may want to review your Deflection Policies.  See Create Deflection Policies for more information.  

If you see requests that are consistently aging to the next lender or aging to unfilled, you may consider going to non-supplier status during times of low staffing or turning on the New Lending Notification email in OCLC Service Configuration. Refer to the New Lending Requests Email Notification for more information. For information about non-supplier status, see Change Supplier Status.

Reasons for No

Find the available Reason for No options.

Manually selected Reasons for No

The following Reasons for No can be manually selected on a Lending request.

 Note: It is always recommended to provide a Reason for No as it helps the borrower understand why the request could not be filled. If you do not supply a Reason for No, Unspecified will appear on the Reasons for No report. 

Reason for No When to use Recommended follow-up actions
No reason given No reason specified.   
In use/On loan Your library owns the item, but it is checked out or otherwise in use and not available for ILL. Request that OCLC configure your library for real-time availability to prevent receiving requests for items that are checked out. Refer to Real-time availability for more information.
Lacking Use for article requests.  Your library has access to the title requested, but you do not hold the volume or issue being requested. Be sure your Local Holdings or knowledge base holdings information accurately reflects your electronic and print serials holdings.
Not owned Your library does not own the item requested. Remove your library's holdings from the OCLC record to avoid repeat requests for this item.
Non-circulating Your library owns this item but it does not circulate outside of the library.  Examples include reference items or special collections items.  

Create an LHR deflection to prevent repeat request for this item. 

Not on shelf/Missing Your library owns this item but it is currently lost or missing. Request that OCLC configure your library for real-time availability to prevent receiving requests for items that are currently in a missing status. Refer to Real-time availability for more information.
Policy problem Your library owns this item but your policies dictate you will not lend it via ILL.

Consider creating a Deflection Policy if you will not lend any materials of this type. 

Item too new to loan Your library owns this item but will not lend it via ILL because of its newness to your collection.

Set up a Deflection Policy based on material age.

  • This will apply to the age of material relative to the publication date, not relative to the date you added it to your collection.  
  • See Manage policies for more information.
On reserve Your library owns this item but it is unavailable for ILL because it is on course reserve or otherwise restricted to local use.  
Publisher embargo Your library has access to this journal/collection, but you cannot provide the article requested because your subscription does not include the most recent year/18 months/etc period of time due to an embargo.  
Not licensed to fill Your library has access to this item, but your license terms with the publisher or vendor do not permit you to supply it externally via ILL. 

If your library uses the OCLC Knowledge Base or WorldShare License Manager, you may wish to set ILL terms to No for the collection in which this material resides. 

On order The requested item is still on order and not available yet in your library.  
Volume/issue not yet available Your library subscribes to the title, but has not yet received the requested volume or issue.  
Cost exceeds limit The borrower's maximum cost is below what you would charge for this type of request Set up a deflection policy for all requests in which the borrower's maximum cost is below your usual charge.
Not found as cited The requested item may have a citation error, as you cannot locate it based on the citation details included in the request. Instead of responding No with this reason, you may wish to respond with a conditional response to give the borrower a chance to correct the citation before sending it to additional lenders, or back to you with a correction made.
Offsite Your library owns this item but it is not immediately accessible to you.  It may be at an offsite storage facility and therefore you cannot retrieve it and ship it to the borrower within the allotted days to respond.  
Technical processing

Your library owns this item but it is still being processed. 

  • This may apply to newly acquired materials or materials currently being repaired or re-processed.
 
Poor condition Your library owns this item but its condition is too fragile for shipping.  

Add an LHR deflection for this item to prevent future requests. 

Requested delivery services not supported

The requesting library has asked for a shipping method your library does not use.

  • Example: You ship all materials USPS and the requesting library has asked for FedEx or another method that is outside the shipping methods supported by your institution.
 
Preferred delivery time not possible The requesting library has asked for rush shipping or the need by date on the request could not be met by your normal shipping methods.  
At bindery

Your library owns the item, but it is currently unavailable as it is out for binding. 

  • Example:  Requests for journal articles when you are having the year's loose issues bound.
 
Prepayment required Your library requires payment for lending fees, shipping, copying, or processing fees in advance of supplying the requested material.  
Other  You cannot supply the requested item for a reason not included in the list of options.  

System-supplied Reasons for No

Additional Reasons for No may appear on the report that were automatically performed by the system and not manually selected. 

Reason for No Description
Unspecified Unspecified will appear on the report if a Reason for No was not provided.
Aged to next lender The request aged to the next lender.
Aged to same lender The lender's symbol appeared twice in the lender string and the lender did not respond within their days to respond.
Aged to unfilled The lender did not respond within their days to respond and was the last lender in the lender string.
Aged to expired The borrower's need before date was reached without the lender responding.
System checked availability This reason appears on the report if the lender has real-time availability configured, and the system checked availability and found the item unavailable so moved on to another lender automatically. 
Deflection (multiple reasons)

The lender has policies in their Policies Directory that automatically deflect lending requests. Possible deflection reasons: 

  • Format type: The lender has a deflection policy based on the format of the requested item.
  • Material age: The lender has a deflection policy based on the publication date of the material.
  • Custom Group: The lender has a deflection policy based on membership or lack of membership in a Custom Holdings Group they created.
  • Service type: The lender has a deflection policy for all loan or all copy requests. 
  • Not a supplier: The lender went nonsupplier at some point after the lender string was built.
  • Maxcost: The lender has a deflection policy that deflects requests where the borrower’s max cost is less than what the lender charges.
  • Profiled Group: Lender is deflecting based on membership or lack of membership in an OCLC Profiled Group.
  • Multiple Reasons: The request matches one or multiple of the library's deflection policies with multiple reasons for deflection.
Deflection - E-license Term The lender has ILL terms set to no on a knowledge base collection and a deflection policy for e-license terms set to no.
Deflection - Local Holdings The lender edited the leader of the LHR to indicate it will not lend or will not copy.
Deflection - On Order The item is deflected if the lender is a WMS library and has the item on order.
Borrower Refused Conditions The lender responded conditionally to a request and the borrower did not accept the conditions.