Libraries consider several fees when fulfilling student borrowing requests. Journal subscriptions, copyright fees, peer-to-peer transactions, and commercial suppliers are a few examples. And this can lead to the costs adding up.
We asked Alli Carroll, Electronic Services Manager at the University of East Anglia (UEA), in Norwich, England, what helped the library manage the resource sharing budget better. She shares:
“With one annual subscription fee, rather than having to reconcile individual transaction payments, [RapidILL] helps us manage our interlending budget more easily as well as saving staff time.”
Today, a third of all UK academic libraries already use RapidILL, Ex Libris’ interlibrary loan management system. They reduce the cost of sourcing external titles and the mental workload of tracking transactions. RapidILL works on the principle of “reciprocity.” This principle allows libraries to join groups called pods to share titles without charging each other. And they never lend more than what they borrow.
But member libraries have not only simplified budget management. RapidILL easily integrates with any library management system to automatically fulfill the flowing requests. Carrol added that this integration has saved staff time and helps provide quicker delivery:
“RapidILL allows speedy and direct delivery of interlending copy requests to our users. We have integrated RapidILL within our Library Management System Interlending module, allowing for further automation of our ILL service. This provides quicker delivery times for our users and staff time savings.”
With RapidILL, member libraries achieve:
- 10 hours average turnaround time
- 97% fulfillment rate
Students have already placed more than 20 million requests through the Ex Libris library resource sharing community. Join the community today and take part in the journey to 30 million.
About RapidILL by Ex Libris, part of Clarivate:
RapidILL is an interlibrary-loan automation system tailored for article and book chapter requests. With more than 600 members in the community, libraries fulfill 95% of their requests, in 10 hours on average.
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What’s the difference between RapidILL and Rapido?
Ex Libris unifies its resource-sharing community under Rapido. Rapido offers the automation capabilities of RapidILL, while making it easier for patrons to borrow titles:
- Gain time and budget back for more critical services. Rapido integrates the RapidILL technology with your ILS to connect you to libraries worldwide. It automatically processes interlibrary loan requests from patrons.
- Give more independence to your users. They can borrow physical and digital titles on the library’s interface in two clicks. Rapido gets rid of the interlibrary loan forms.
Is Rapido the right fit for your library? Watch the video.
