WorldShare Interlibrary Loan release notes, August 2024
Release Date: August 25, 2024
Introduction
This release of WorldShare ILL provides news features for Resource Sharing for Groups in addition to bug fixes. These features will help you manage more complex workflows, including:
- Provide patrons with a My Account experience
- Use circulation lending integration to automatically place holds for requested items (for Sirsi Dynix Horizon or Symphony)
These enhancements are the direct result of your feedback.
Recommended actions
For this release, we recommend that you review the following checklists and complete the relevant tasks so that you can adjust your policies and workflows and train your staff. These checklists identify updates that we have determined as significant for most institutions. We encourage you to review all of the items in the release notes to determine whether there are other items that might require additional action or follow up by your institution.
Administrative actions
These items require immediate action or decisions.
| Action |
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For best performance, it's very important to clear your browser's cache before starting to work with WorldShare ILL. |
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Offer your patrons the OpenURL-based WorldShare ILL request form! It allows you to:
For more information, see the WorldShare ILL release notes, May 2023. |
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As part of Smart fulfillment, OCLC's Express digital delivery program enables digital resource sharing among a select group of libraries using the WorldShare ILL network that have turnaround times for lending digital materials of 18 hours or less. More than 1,000 libraries from around the world are actively participating in Express based on their ability to deliver articles and other digital resources within this timeframe. More than 600 of the Express program libraries are also members of Libraries Very Interesting in Sharing (LVIS), which agree to supply articles to each other for free. With this release, the improved turnaround time dashboard helps you see where your library's turnaround time falls with respect qualifying for Express. For more information, see: |
| Have your contact information or lending policies changed? If so, please make the appropriate updates in the OCLC Policies Directory. |
Follow-up actions
In an effort to keep your staff informed of new features and changes, you may also want to consider these items.
| Action |
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Share these release notes with your colleagues. |
| Visit the OCLC Community Center to connect with OCLC and other community members. |
New features and enhancements
Provide patrons with a My Account experience
For libraries with Resource Sharing for Groups
Patrons at libraries with Resource Sharing for Groups can now take advantage of a My Account experience. They can directly access My Account via direct the direct URL,
https://<YourReqistryID>.account.worldcat.org/account. Sign-in is required.
When the user sucessfully places an ILL request using the WorldShare ILL request form...
... they are directed to their Requests tab, which displays the recently submitted request along with their previous ILL requests, if any.
For more information, see My Account for Resource Sharing for Groups.
Use circulation lending integration to automatically place holds for requested items
For libraries with Resource Sharing for Groups and Sirsi Dynix Horizon or Symphony
Holds can now be placed automatically on items requested from lending institutions that are held by your library when an ISBN or OCLC number is provided in the request. A title-level hold is placed on the requested title, and the circulation system decides which item to use to fill that hold. This saves staff time by eliminating manual steps.
This enhancement also provides a more integrated circulation workflow for libraries with multiple branches. When a new lending request comes in, the system can trigger the circulation system to start routing the requested item to the ILL department for shipping. When the item is held at a branch, the branch staff are notified that the item is needed so they can get it en route quickly.
Although this feature has first been implemented for Sirsi Dynix systems, we anticipate making it available for other library systems in future releases.
To enable this feature, go to OCLC Service Configuration > WorldShare ILL > Circulation Integration > Lending. Then select the checkbox for Place hold on requested item.
The Circulation History will indicate the success or failure for placing the hold.
For more information, see Set up third-party Circulation integration.
Note
Staff interface being modernized for improved accessibility, usability, and navigation
In early 2024, the OCLC Resource Sharing Team began a project to modernize the WorldShare ILL staff interface. The modernization does not introduce new functionality but will improve accessibility, usability, and navigation, ensuring clearer organization of information as well as the use of modern components, elements, and behaviors.
Modernized pages will be rolled out and released in a two-phase process. Libraries that participate in the "preview" group will see and use the new pages one release prior to other WorldShare ILL libraries. The release of modernized pages began earlier this year.
| The modernized version of this page... | Released to the preview group... | Released to all WorldShare ILL libraries... |
| Request Details: Purchase tab | January 2024 | February 2024 |
| Request Details: Staff Notes tab | February 2024 | June 2024 |
| WorldShare ILL Home page | February 2024 | June 2024 |
| Search results page | April 2024 | June 2024 |
| Create Request, Request History, Queues | August 2024 | October 2024 |
No new features for all libraries are included with the August 2024 release for WorldShare ILL. For upcoming releases, the list above will be updated with additional pages.
If your library team is interested in being included in the preview group, please send an email to oclcresourcesharing@oclc.org.
For more information, please see the January 31 session of Product Insights: Resource Sharing (timestamp 13:05).
Bug fixes and known issues
For a full list of current and recently fixed issues, see Known issues.
Important links
Product Insights
To help you become familiar with the new features, enhancements, and improvements included in this release, please attend the upcoming webinar Product Insights: Resource Sharing.
Date: Thursday, October 16, 2:00 pm, Eastern Daylight Time
Registration: https://community.oclc.org/t5/resour...sharing-events
Please note the session time zones when registering. The sessions will be recorded and archived for future viewing on the OCLC Community Center. Please register, even if you cannot attend, to receive a link to the recorded session.
OCLC Resource Sharing Conference web series
OCLC invites you to register for upcoming presentations in the 2024 OCLC Resource Sharing Conference (RSC24) web series. This year’s series of free, virtual sessions focuses on topics of interest to the OCLC interlibrary loan community. Recordings and slides for past sessions are available in the community center.
RSC24 includes these sessions:
- March 13: Lightning sessions | Recording
- It’s dangerous to go alone: The collaborative process of providing resources for teaching
- Streamlining access: The merge of information services and interlibrary loan for an almost seamless library experience
- From silo to collaboration: Embedding resource sharing in collection management
- March 27: Forming a more perfect union: The groundbreaking harmonization of resource sharing policies across and within Big Ten Academic Alliance libraries | Recording
- April 10: Panel presentation: The power of collaboration: Cross-departmental cooperation and resilience | Recording
- April 24: Lightning sessions | Recording
- Win-win purchasing: Using ILL to automate your collection development for print items
- Book digitization: How the UConn Library accommodates patrons with print disabilities
- A tiered system approach to ILL borrowing
- May 1: Lightning sessions | Recording
- Building bridges beyond borders: Key findings from the international interlibrary loan survey
- Emerging Nations Article Exchange Program
- May 8: Advancing resource sharing: OCLC and Atlas Systems innovations in APIs and AI | Recording
Virtual Workshop Series: Learn how to fine-tune your ILL setup
Were you able to join us for all of our Virtual Workshops where we showed how you can optimize your library’s ILL setup and workflows, and save time?
The series included the following topics:
- Part 1: Fine-tune your policies and deflections (recording, slides, and checklist available)
- Part 2: Construct your custom holdings (recording, slides, and checklist available)
- Part 3: Automate your request process (recording, slides, and checklist available)
- Part 4: Curate and care for your constant data (recording, slides, and checklist available)
- Part 5: Make your usage statistics count (recording, slides, and checklist available)
Support websites
Support information for this product and related products can be found at: