The Network Inter Library Document Exchange (NILDE) (conceived in 2001 by The Library of the Area of CNR (Italian National Research Council) in Bologna, Italy) has been now added to the KnowledgeBase in version 4 of the Ex Libris SFX OpenURL link resolver. Used by over 800 Italian, Spanish, and Greek libraries, NILDE is a document delivery system that allows libraries to request and provide documents to each other. By using the SFX OpenURL protocol, libraries can connect to the bibliographic databases that serve NILDE and receive automatically compiled bibliographic citations.

The addition of NILDE as a target in SFX makes it much easier for end-users to request an item because the application form is pre-populated with the bibliographic data. The request arrives correct and complete so that the library can quickly check if they have the item in their own electronic resources or if they need to submit the form to the supplying library.

I spoke with Silvana Mangiaracina, head of the library of the regional office of the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and NILDE team leader, who commented “We have always attached great importance to the integration between document delivery services and electronic resources that libraries provide to the end users. The availability of information resources in electronic format changed the expectations and behavior of users. This agreement is an important step that delivers benefits to libraries that use both SFX and NILDE, leading to improved workflows, reduced manual intervention, and a high-quality service to fully satisfy user needs.”

If you would like to find out more about this integration please contact us.