Later this month, you will be able to enable a lending request form for off-system partners. With this release, you can prepare by configuring your request form and linking specific users to partner institutions in your address book.
The request form itself will not become available until a user portal install occurs later in May 2023. We recommend that you NOT distribute any user accounts to partner institutions prior to the user portal install.
Configure a request form for off-system partners
In OCLC Service Configuration (by using your account with the WorldShare ILL Admin role), you can now configure a form to by used for lending to off-system partners.
To set up your off-system lending form:
- Go to OCLC Service Configuration > WorldShare ILL > Request Forms > Lender's Off-System Request Form.
- Customize the form content, labels, and informational messages to be relevant to off-system partners requesting from your library.
- Use the Preview button to view what the form will look like.
After the May 2023 user portal release, you can provide your off-system partners with access to the form by sharing the URL shown below via email or a web page on your library's web site.
For more information, see Off-system lending by request form.
If your library is a member of a WorldShare Management Services (WMS) group, you have the option to configure a single form for your group. To consult about the best setup for your group, please reach out to OCLC Support.
Create and link user accounts with off-system partners
For staff at your off-system partner institutions to submit requests, you will need to create a user account for them and link it to the partner in the address book. This is also done within the Admin tab and OCLC Service Configuration (by using your account with the WorldShare ILL Admin role).
In the Admin tab
On the Admin tab, click New User.
The account data can be very minimal. (You only need to store information about the user here because there is additional partner information in the Address Book.)
The following fields are required/recommended:
|
Field |
Notes |
Recommended |
Name |
Include sufficient information to identify the user. |
Recommended |
Address |
Use this for quick identification of the partner institution. |
Required |
Email |
Needed for setting/resetting password and contacting the user. |
Required for WMS libraries |
Barcode, Patron Type, Home Branch |
|
Required |
User Name |
Needed for account creation and sign-in. |
Required |
WorldShare ILL Partner |
Needed to access the partner form.
Note: Only apply the Partner role to external users that you will link to a partner institution. Do not add this role to existing Admin or User accounts being used by your library's staff or patrons. For testing the partner workflow, we recommend creating a separate partner account specifically for that purpose. |
In OCLC Service Configuration
Under WorldShare ILL, go to the Address Book and open the record for the relevant partner. Scroll down to find a new section for Borrower Account.
Search for and select the user, and then click Apply to link them to the partner institution.
In the Borrower Account section of the partner record, you now see the linked user.
Currently, only one user can be linked to a partner. To change the user, you would remove the link to the user and then link a different user.
For WMS groups, partners are shared across the group, so a user will be able to borrow from any library that's a member of that WMS group.
For more information, see Off-system lending by request form.
Please watch for news and release notes in the coming weeks about the upcoming user portal install, which will enable access to the request form for users at partner institutions. We recommend that you NOT distribute any user accounts to partner institutions prior to the user portal install.