1 00:00:06,050 --> 00:00:07,880 Hello. My name is Brynne Norton. 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:11,240 I am the head of resource sharing and reserves at the university of Maryland 3 00:00:11,240 --> 00:00:12,073 college park. 4 00:00:13,620 --> 00:00:14,920 And my name is Ashley Chen. 5 00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:18,480 I am the borrowing specialist in resource sharing and reserves at college park. 6 00:00:19,420 --> 00:00:23,720 We are here to present to you today about the effectiveness of borrowing eBooks 7 00:00:23,740 --> 00:00:25,990 via interlibrary loan and our experience. 8 00:00:31,810 --> 00:00:34,420 Okay. So our first question, when we're thinking about this topic, 9 00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:38,460 and we're specifically thinking about borrowing eBooks, not lending, 10 00:00:38,590 --> 00:00:41,820 we're kind of setting that aside for this presentation. Uh, 11 00:00:41,840 --> 00:00:45,730 so the first question is why is it challenging to borrow an ebook? 12 00:00:46,430 --> 00:00:51,210 And really this comes down to licensing, uh, licensing trumps copyright law, 13 00:00:51,710 --> 00:00:53,570 and the licenses are frequently limited. 14 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:58,010 Some of the things that makes these licenses challenging are the fact that you 15 00:00:58,010 --> 00:01:02,370 have to negotiate with each individual vendor for interlibrary loan rights. 16 00:01:03,090 --> 00:01:06,110 There are also are frequently non-disclosure agreements, 17 00:01:06,110 --> 00:01:09,390 which can make information sharing challenging across libraries. 18 00:01:09,690 --> 00:01:11,270 If you're at a public institution, 19 00:01:11,270 --> 00:01:14,670 sometimes you're required to share the terms of your licenses, 20 00:01:15,170 --> 00:01:18,830 but if you're at a private institution, then you don't have to, 21 00:01:18,850 --> 00:01:21,790 and the vendors can require you not to share that information. 22 00:01:24,970 --> 00:01:28,680 So imagine how many vendors your library deals with and how many different 23 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:32,910 negotiations it would take to try to get those rights. Um, at this time, 24 00:01:32,910 --> 00:01:36,150 the university of Maryland has no ability to lend whole eBooks. 25 00:01:36,570 --> 00:01:39,150 We only have been able to get, uh, 26 00:01:39,150 --> 00:01:42,150 license agreements that allow us to lend chapters from eBooks. 27 00:01:43,980 --> 00:01:47,840 The second part that makes borrowing eBooks challenging are the user 28 00:01:47,840 --> 00:01:51,080 expectations, patron expectations, uh, 29 00:01:51,230 --> 00:01:54,840 patrons expect eBooks to work like they do at the public library where you have 30 00:01:54,840 --> 00:01:58,920 this nice big catalog in something like overdrive and everything's there. 31 00:01:59,420 --> 00:02:03,110 You can download it immediately. You can put it on your e-reader, 32 00:02:03,370 --> 00:02:06,110 you have a variety of ways to access it. Um, 33 00:02:06,170 --> 00:02:11,030 the reality is that they do not work this way in academic libraries. Uh, 34 00:02:11,030 --> 00:02:14,390 sometimes you can only read in the browser. Sometimes you can download a PDF. 35 00:02:14,700 --> 00:02:16,710 Sometimes you have to go chapter by chapter. 36 00:02:17,060 --> 00:02:22,050 There's really a wide variety of ways to access this information based 37 00:02:22,050 --> 00:02:25,010 on the various vendors and vendor platforms that exist. 38 00:02:25,940 --> 00:02:30,230 There's also a really big expectation that the libraries can get an ebook if 39 00:02:30,230 --> 00:02:31,470 it's available on Amazon. 40 00:02:31,970 --> 00:02:36,670 And this is also something that is challenging to communicate to patrons, uh, 41 00:02:36,670 --> 00:02:37,630 just because the library, 42 00:02:38,020 --> 00:02:41,740 just because an ebook exists in the world does not mean that a library can 43 00:02:41,900 --> 00:02:42,733 purchase it. 44 00:02:42,850 --> 00:02:47,220 Many libraries are contracted to only work with specific vendors or many 45 00:02:47,220 --> 00:02:51,100 libraries will only purchase eBooks if they hit certain, uh, needs. 46 00:02:51,760 --> 00:02:55,660 For example, if it's a multi-user license or an individual license, 47 00:02:56,640 --> 00:03:00,880 uh, whether one person can use it at a time or multiple people can use it at the 48 00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:04,440 same time, uh, plus the cost factor. Uh, 49 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:09,200 the bottom line is that eBooks do still cost a lot more than print books. And, 50 00:03:09,420 --> 00:03:13,480 uh, although many libraries are moving more and more towards an ebook model. 51 00:03:14,020 --> 00:03:15,440 In many cases, they are not 52 00:03:19,750 --> 00:03:24,380 excuse me. So if it's just the PDF, 53 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:26,300 why can't you get it from me? 54 00:03:26,560 --> 00:03:30,140 That's a question that we hear a lot from our patrons. Um, 55 00:03:30,140 --> 00:03:33,300 sometimes it is a PDF and sometimes it's not, uh, 56 00:03:33,300 --> 00:03:35,700 they don't necessarily understand the licensing factor, 57 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:40,420 but there are some other problems that complicate whether or not we can actually 58 00:03:40,420 --> 00:03:44,810 get a file delivered to us. So technology is a big part of this, 59 00:03:45,070 --> 00:03:46,010 as I just mentioned, 60 00:03:46,110 --> 00:03:49,210 eBooks are frequently broken into chapters on vendor platforms. 61 00:03:49,710 --> 00:03:52,410 So let's say we did have the rights to lend a whole ebook, 62 00:03:52,470 --> 00:03:54,850 and it was a 30 chapter ebook. Uh, 63 00:03:54,970 --> 00:03:59,320 a staff member would have to download each of the individual 30 files and then, 64 00:03:59,980 --> 00:04:04,920 uh, knit them together into a singular file in order to send to another library 65 00:04:05,100 --> 00:04:06,560 as an interlibrary loan request. 66 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:12,530 This makes it very time consuming in those instances. In other instances, 67 00:04:12,600 --> 00:04:16,650 there's no way to download a PDF and everything must be accessed through a 68 00:04:16,650 --> 00:04:20,000 browser. And typically those are ones that you cannot, um, 69 00:04:20,140 --> 00:04:21,960 supply via interlibrary loan. Anyway, 70 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:28,360 the next part of it is that worldcat records can be extremely difficult 71 00:04:28,620 --> 00:04:29,453 to parse. 72 00:04:29,980 --> 00:04:34,000 So world cat records are what we use in interlibrary loan and resource sharing 73 00:04:34,460 --> 00:04:39,110 in order to identify items that can be borrowed or lent from a variety of 74 00:04:39,110 --> 00:04:43,190 libraries, eBooks do appear in worldcat. Uh, 75 00:04:43,650 --> 00:04:46,190 but just because they appear in worldcat, again, 76 00:04:46,340 --> 00:04:48,110 just like something may appear on Amazon. 77 00:04:48,170 --> 00:04:49,750 It does not mean that they are loanable. 78 00:04:49,850 --> 00:04:52,550 It does not mean that they are borrowable. 79 00:04:53,510 --> 00:04:57,680 So not only does the patron not know if the ebook is available 80 00:04:58,480 --> 00:04:59,440 frequently, uh, 81 00:04:59,620 --> 00:05:03,520 I'm gonna say nine times out of 10 libraries may not know if that item is 82 00:05:03,520 --> 00:05:08,400 available to be lent or borrowed without some manual work on the 83 00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:10,000 part of interlibrary loan staff. 84 00:05:11,940 --> 00:05:14,280 So when we do get a request for something that is an ebook, 85 00:05:14,500 --> 00:05:17,950 we do have ways that we identify people who can, uh, 86 00:05:18,020 --> 00:05:19,550 lend these eBooks to us. 87 00:05:19,940 --> 00:05:23,790 There's a lending group in worldshare called EBOK. 88 00:05:24,490 --> 00:05:28,670 And this group is made up of libraries who say they can lend eBooks. However, 89 00:05:28,820 --> 00:05:31,670 this is not an exhaustive list. Uh, 90 00:05:31,930 --> 00:05:35,820 if this is a voluntary list that people can agree to be on or not 91 00:05:36,810 --> 00:05:41,570 also libraries who are in this list may only be able to lend from specific 92 00:05:41,660 --> 00:05:42,493 publishers. 93 00:05:43,030 --> 00:05:47,850 So you don't necessarily know whether the ebook request you're sending is 94 00:05:47,910 --> 00:05:52,010 for a publisher that they have a license to lend for or not. Uh, 95 00:05:52,010 --> 00:05:56,120 basically what we end up having to do is make little cheat sheets, uh, 96 00:05:56,120 --> 00:05:57,080 make little notes to, 97 00:05:57,460 --> 00:06:00,960 to try to remember which libraries can loan from which publishers. 98 00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:05,660 So that makes it very challenging on the staff side. Uh, 99 00:06:05,660 --> 00:06:08,500 there may be an ebook out there that we could borrow, however, 100 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:10,900 we may not be able to identify it. 101 00:06:13,710 --> 00:06:14,260 Okay. 102 00:06:14,260 --> 00:06:19,230 So now we're going to over going to go over a bit about how we go about 103 00:06:19,230 --> 00:06:20,830 requesting eBooks, um, 104 00:06:21,380 --> 00:06:24,750 both a little bit of background for how we did it during the pandemic closures 105 00:06:24,750 --> 00:06:28,270 and then going forward into how we're doing it at present. Um, 106 00:06:28,290 --> 00:06:31,550 so going back a little bit during the pandemic closures, um, 107 00:06:31,640 --> 00:06:36,100 university of Maryland libraries were closed, um, in March of 2020, 108 00:06:36,360 --> 00:06:39,460 and then we were not able to, um, 109 00:06:39,520 --> 00:06:43,740 do physical borrowing or lending until we were able to establish a curbside 110 00:06:43,740 --> 00:06:48,100 pickup service, um, which wasn't until, uh, 2021. Um, 111 00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:49,980 and so during those pandemic closures, 112 00:06:49,980 --> 00:06:53,250 because we were restricted from using any print materials, 113 00:06:53,910 --> 00:06:58,850 eBooks became a very important and very highly demanded resource from 114 00:06:58,850 --> 00:07:03,650 our patrons and our users, um, seeing this need, we tried to adapt. 115 00:07:03,790 --> 00:07:07,650 And so we made a temporary ebook request form. Um, 116 00:07:07,710 --> 00:07:12,440 so this ebook request form we built in order to look like a loan form for the 117 00:07:12,450 --> 00:07:13,010 users, 118 00:07:13,010 --> 00:07:17,120 since their expectation of a book as an ebook is still that it's going to be a 119 00:07:17,120 --> 00:07:20,920 loan for them while functioning like an article request form from the staff 120 00:07:20,950 --> 00:07:24,360 side, since from our point of view in interlibrary loan, 121 00:07:24,710 --> 00:07:26,280 it's a non-returnable file. 122 00:07:26,380 --> 00:07:30,990 And so therefore functions more as an article request. Next slide please. 123 00:07:35,110 --> 00:07:39,610 So post closure, um, we no longer have the ebook request form, 124 00:07:40,150 --> 00:07:45,050 but what we have done is we've really taken a closer look at how our, 125 00:07:45,470 --> 00:07:48,570 uh, loan request form our book request form looks, um, 126 00:07:48,570 --> 00:07:53,560 and how our patrons interact with it. Um, so for the loan request form, 127 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:56,200 you'll see the image on the right hand side of the screen, 128 00:07:56,500 --> 00:08:00,840 the arrow that's furthest to the right hand side, um, it's asking, 129 00:08:01,230 --> 00:08:03,120 will you accept an alternate format? 130 00:08:03,380 --> 00:08:06,880 And that is pulled out in sort of the larger image on the left hand side of the 131 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:10,510 screen. Um, this is one of the main, uh, 132 00:08:11,070 --> 00:08:14,310 questions that we really want to get from our patrons and really want them to 133 00:08:14,310 --> 00:08:16,990 understand. So we've also developed this, uh, 134 00:08:17,270 --> 00:08:19,150 question mark call out that when you click it, 135 00:08:19,170 --> 00:08:21,630 it will give you further information, um, 136 00:08:21,630 --> 00:08:26,510 which goes into telling them about how ISBN numbers and OCLC numbers 137 00:08:26,510 --> 00:08:29,820 really help us to know what they're requesting, um, 138 00:08:30,530 --> 00:08:32,980 ISBN numbers and OCLC numbers are really the, 139 00:08:33,120 --> 00:08:37,540 the keys that we use on the ILL staff side to identify in a request, 140 00:08:37,540 --> 00:08:40,860 whether the patron is wanting primarily an ebook, 141 00:08:40,860 --> 00:08:43,340 or if they're requesting a print book. Um, 142 00:08:43,770 --> 00:08:48,170 this alternate format question also helps helps us on the staff staff side, 143 00:08:48,270 --> 00:08:52,330 so that if we are not able to identify an ebook lender, um, 144 00:08:52,330 --> 00:08:56,240 from the EBOK group, as we've mentioned earlier from other sources, um, 145 00:08:56,390 --> 00:08:59,880 this will let us know that they will accept that print version instead. 146 00:08:59,940 --> 00:09:02,920 And so we can at least get some material to them, um, 147 00:09:02,920 --> 00:09:05,960 rather than just having to cancel the request outright. 148 00:09:10,670 --> 00:09:14,840 And so on the ILL staff side of things, when these requests come through, 149 00:09:15,500 --> 00:09:20,360 um, we've set it up so that it will flag it into a new queue for ebook 150 00:09:20,360 --> 00:09:21,240 borrowing, um, 151 00:09:21,240 --> 00:09:26,120 based off of the open URL that is being pulled from the world cat catalog, um, 152 00:09:26,230 --> 00:09:29,880 into our, uh, ILLiad client. Um, but once again, 153 00:09:29,880 --> 00:09:33,750 we'll check that OCLC number just to see what it's displayed as in the 154 00:09:33,790 --> 00:09:37,390 catalogs. And that's the main discovery tool that our patrons are using. 155 00:09:38,450 --> 00:09:41,950 If they are opening up a record that is listed as an ebook, 156 00:09:42,090 --> 00:09:46,070 we can pretty confidently know that that's the type of format that they're 157 00:09:46,070 --> 00:09:49,950 predominantly searching for and requesting. Um, so in this instance, 158 00:09:50,010 --> 00:09:50,990 as I mentioned before, 159 00:09:51,020 --> 00:09:55,780 because it's a non-returnable item from the ILL staff side point or side 160 00:09:56,210 --> 00:09:57,300 view, um, 161 00:09:57,310 --> 00:10:01,780 we'll flip this request to an article and then in that article titled field, 162 00:10:01,810 --> 00:10:05,380 just to make it really clear to the other side that we're, um, asking from, 163 00:10:05,470 --> 00:10:08,860 we'll put patron's requesting ebook ijn brackets, um, 164 00:10:09,040 --> 00:10:12,690 as well as use the custom holding groups for eBooks, um, 165 00:10:13,230 --> 00:10:18,210 as well as EBOK group, there's also Viva, 166 00:10:18,750 --> 00:10:18,980 um, 167 00:10:18,980 --> 00:10:23,530 which is a collection of libraries predominantly in Virginia that have indicated 168 00:10:23,530 --> 00:10:27,250 that they're able to loan eBooks again, only from certain publishers, 169 00:10:27,350 --> 00:10:31,480 but it at least does sort of increase our likelihood and our chances of being 170 00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:36,240 able to get this ebook for the patron. Um, and so then, uh, 171 00:10:36,290 --> 00:10:39,960 we'll just go and we'll send out the request and we'll keep sending that out to 172 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:44,040 those different ebook lenders until we sort of exhaust those custom holding 173 00:10:44,040 --> 00:10:45,600 groups at that point, 174 00:10:45,700 --> 00:10:50,510 that's where it comes back to the staff and unfilled and where that, uh, 175 00:10:50,510 --> 00:10:54,310 alternate format question really comes into play. Um, and this is very, 176 00:10:54,310 --> 00:10:58,990 very key and important for us because if the patron says that they, um, 177 00:10:59,180 --> 00:11:02,030 will not accept an alternate format. Um, 178 00:11:02,050 --> 00:11:05,190 and so they'll say that they're not going to accept that print book, 179 00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:08,660 that's when we're unfortunately going to have to cancel it for that cancellation 180 00:11:08,670 --> 00:11:10,180 issue. Um, 181 00:11:10,180 --> 00:11:13,180 and then the last point on there that I forgot to mention before is when we are 182 00:11:13,180 --> 00:11:15,340 sending these requests out in ILLiad, 183 00:11:15,340 --> 00:11:18,900 you have the option of adding a borrowing note when you're sending it out. 184 00:11:18,900 --> 00:11:20,060 And so in that field, 185 00:11:20,060 --> 00:11:25,010 we have a custom note set up for the document type of ebook to have a note 186 00:11:25,010 --> 00:11:28,130 saying, please send the ebook and not the print book. Um, 187 00:11:28,130 --> 00:11:32,130 because during the pandemic, we had quite a few very, um, 188 00:11:32,560 --> 00:11:36,210 kind libraries that were trying to help out and ended up sending print books 189 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:39,170 when they couldn't send the ebook. But that kind of, um, 190 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:41,170 sort of gummed up our workflows a little bit, 191 00:11:41,200 --> 00:11:45,080 just because that meant that then the patron was waiting longer for a request 192 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:47,080 that maybe could have been filled by the next lender, 193 00:11:47,100 --> 00:11:48,840 if they were able to send the ebook instead, 194 00:11:51,710 --> 00:11:56,080 Think what, so kind of going off of the last thing that I mentioned, 195 00:11:56,260 --> 00:12:01,000 why do these requests get canceled? And so during the pandemic, um, 196 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:03,600 since electronic format was the only one that we could provide, 197 00:12:03,660 --> 00:12:08,080 we were very restricted in being able to supply any print formats for almost 198 00:12:08,150 --> 00:12:09,600 full year. Um, 199 00:12:10,380 --> 00:12:15,350 we really wanted to try and get to that yes, answer to the patrons as, 200 00:12:15,410 --> 00:12:18,830 as well as we could. And so if the ebook wasn't available, 201 00:12:19,010 --> 00:12:23,830 we would then go and email the patrons and ask them if instead they would be 202 00:12:23,830 --> 00:12:26,270 interested in either a scan of the table of contents, 203 00:12:26,370 --> 00:12:29,980 or if they knew specific chapters that they would want to request from this 204 00:12:29,980 --> 00:12:31,180 book. Um, 205 00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:34,660 the amount of chapters that we were able to request from these books was very 206 00:12:34,860 --> 00:12:38,820 dependent on the publishers and their copyright allowances. Um, 207 00:12:38,820 --> 00:12:43,660 we relied heavily on using the copyright clearance centers function within ILLiad in 208 00:12:43,660 --> 00:12:45,540 order to determine these copyright allowances, 209 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:49,090 and also went to the website itself to be able to, um, 210 00:12:49,090 --> 00:12:53,810 look up if they had any written, uh, agreements there. Um, so this, 211 00:12:54,110 --> 00:12:57,290 as you might have guessed caused a lot of back and forth communication between 212 00:12:57,290 --> 00:12:59,010 us and our patrons. Um, 213 00:12:59,200 --> 00:13:03,330 just helping them understand how we calculate the copyright allowances and also 214 00:13:03,330 --> 00:13:05,410 explaining those limitations, um, 215 00:13:05,470 --> 00:13:09,880 and then also cloning these requests and then creating them and processing them 216 00:13:09,880 --> 00:13:14,400 in ILLiad. Um, there was a lot of questions on the patron side, 217 00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:18,680 especially if in one book that maybe had 20 something chapters, 218 00:13:18,680 --> 00:13:20,240 like think like an academic textbook, 219 00:13:20,500 --> 00:13:23,840 we were able to get them three or four chapters where in another book we were 220 00:13:23,840 --> 00:13:25,550 only able to provide one or two, 221 00:13:25,940 --> 00:13:30,310 just being able to have that communication with them and explain to them why, 222 00:13:30,970 --> 00:13:35,630 um, what maybe to them seemed unfair why we were doing those things. Um, 223 00:13:35,630 --> 00:13:38,190 and that we were trying to honor the publishing agreement and that we were 224 00:13:38,190 --> 00:13:42,190 trying to still get them information while working with the limitations that we 225 00:13:42,190 --> 00:13:45,700 had, um, at, within ILL. Um, 226 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:50,940 so post closure in the present climate that we're in now that we are able to, 227 00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:55,180 um, process physical materials again, and now that the, um, 228 00:13:55,500 --> 00:13:58,940 majority of our ILL team is now onsite at all times, um, 229 00:13:59,570 --> 00:14:02,300 working within the library again. Um, 230 00:14:02,560 --> 00:14:05,290 so we are really relying on that format question, um, 231 00:14:05,290 --> 00:14:10,130 in order to determine whether or not we can just flip the book to a 232 00:14:10,130 --> 00:14:14,850 print, uh, request if they said that they would allow that, or if they don't, 233 00:14:14,850 --> 00:14:18,450 then we just end up canceling it. Um, sort of the reason for this, 234 00:14:18,510 --> 00:14:23,400 why is that we no longer have the staff time available to do all of that 235 00:14:23,400 --> 00:14:27,760 back and forth email communication that we had during the pandemic closures when 236 00:14:27,910 --> 00:14:32,880 most of our staff was offsite and had the time to put in that extra time 237 00:14:32,880 --> 00:14:35,160 for processing. Whereas now that we're back onsite, 238 00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:38,560 we're back up to sort of our normal levels of processing and don't have that 239 00:14:38,560 --> 00:14:40,990 staff time to devote to that email communication. 240 00:14:41,250 --> 00:14:44,510 So that format question really is the key that we use, um, 241 00:14:44,510 --> 00:14:46,550 to determine whether or not we have to cancel it, 242 00:14:46,890 --> 00:14:49,030 or if we can switch it to a print book instead. 243 00:14:54,980 --> 00:14:55,500 All right. 244 00:14:55,500 --> 00:14:58,920 So that's a little bit about our workflow in the backend and why this is 245 00:14:59,160 --> 00:15:02,480 challenging. And so Ashley and I asked ourselves the question, 246 00:15:02,780 --> 00:15:05,240 how successful are we at borrowing eBooks? 247 00:15:05,430 --> 00:15:09,080 Because all that is great and we're dealing with so many requests that sometimes 248 00:15:09,080 --> 00:15:10,440 it's hard to know, you know, 249 00:15:10,540 --> 00:15:14,270 how many things went through and how many things got canceled. 250 00:15:15,490 --> 00:15:20,030 So we took a look at our FY 21 and our FY 22 ebook, uh, 251 00:15:20,160 --> 00:15:24,790 stats. And you can see for FY 21, we had about a 30% fill rate. 252 00:15:25,050 --> 00:15:27,150 We had a very large number of requests. 253 00:15:27,570 --> 00:15:31,380 And my note at the bottom says that that's really when the physical collections 254 00:15:31,380 --> 00:15:32,460 were largely unavailable. 255 00:15:32,600 --> 00:15:37,500 So we were reporting basically every print request over into an ebook request to 256 00:15:37,500 --> 00:15:41,460 try to get something for our patrons. In FY 22, 257 00:15:41,560 --> 00:15:45,620 we have a little bit more of a return to normalcy with a little over 2000 258 00:15:45,620 --> 00:15:50,330 requests. And we were able to hit a 55% fill rate for that. 259 00:15:52,070 --> 00:15:54,570 So 55% is actually not terrible. 260 00:15:54,850 --> 00:15:58,410 I think we both were pleasantly surprised that we were filling that many 261 00:15:58,450 --> 00:15:59,283 requests. 262 00:15:59,390 --> 00:16:03,170 You can see sort of numerically it's about the same number of requests that were 263 00:16:03,170 --> 00:16:05,810 filled from FY 21 to FY 22, 264 00:16:05,810 --> 00:16:10,680 which is also very interesting to think about the caveat here is when 265 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:14,800 the request comes in, it does come in, um, with that ebook document type for us. 266 00:16:14,820 --> 00:16:18,440 And that's how we can pull these statistics. However, in some cases, 267 00:16:18,660 --> 00:16:22,200 if they have said, they'll take a print format and we can get it into the print, 268 00:16:22,650 --> 00:16:25,280 we'll be switching that request over to a print book. 269 00:16:25,820 --> 00:16:30,710 So we don't have a great wait way to capture entirely that process and 270 00:16:30,710 --> 00:16:35,070 understand what might have ended up filled as a print and what did not. Um, 271 00:16:35,500 --> 00:16:38,590 also in some cases, as Ashley mentioned during the pandemic, still, 272 00:16:38,590 --> 00:16:40,590 in some cases we do get sent a print book, 273 00:16:40,620 --> 00:16:44,030 even though we try our best to make it clear that we only want the ebook. 274 00:16:44,850 --> 00:16:47,980 So I take these numbers with a grain of salt, 275 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:51,860 but I think that we were pleasantly surprised that it was as high as it was 276 00:16:55,460 --> 00:16:58,680 to give a little bit of context to that. 277 00:16:59,080 --> 00:17:03,080 I did wanna share our fill rates for book chapters. Now, as Ashley said, 278 00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:03,760 during the pandemic, 279 00:17:03,760 --> 00:17:07,830 we did a lot of back and forth taking ebook requests and turning them into 280 00:17:07,830 --> 00:17:11,790 chapters. Uh, we frequently do this for any books that may be hard to find, 281 00:17:11,790 --> 00:17:15,350 or may only be available in E but in this case, 282 00:17:15,370 --> 00:17:19,950 you can see that we have a 92% and a 95% fill rate respectively. 283 00:17:20,400 --> 00:17:20,850 Again, 284 00:17:20,850 --> 00:17:25,540 the decrease in requests is when we got back to having full access to 285 00:17:25,740 --> 00:17:30,320 physical collections here. So we have a really high fill rate for book chapters. 286 00:17:30,820 --> 00:17:33,320 Uh, this leads us to encourage, uh, 287 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:37,880 librarians who are teaching classes or patrons who specifically ask if they do 288 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:40,680 want something, we are much more likely and very, 289 00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:44,870 very likely to get a chapter from a book than we are to get, uh, 290 00:17:45,010 --> 00:17:46,950 an ebook request filled for them. 291 00:17:47,570 --> 00:17:50,960 So I do think we've seen an overall rise in our, uh, 292 00:17:50,990 --> 00:17:54,360 book chapter requests from pre pandemic to today. 293 00:17:54,780 --> 00:17:58,720 And I do think that's a factor of people finding it and finding it easier to 294 00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:00,160 request those book chapters, 295 00:18:00,660 --> 00:18:05,000 and they can get it a lot faster than requesting print books to come when they 296 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:08,550 may be able to just identify the chapter or chapters that they need. 297 00:18:12,230 --> 00:18:15,570 We also did an ILL user survey, uh, 298 00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:18,530 this past spring in spring of 2022. 299 00:18:19,190 --> 00:18:21,290 It had several different sections, 300 00:18:21,290 --> 00:18:24,690 but one section was a question or two about eBooks. 301 00:18:25,060 --> 00:18:29,560 There were 878 respondents to this survey. Uh, 302 00:18:30,230 --> 00:18:34,920 this question was about what would you like to have enhanced for ebook 303 00:18:34,930 --> 00:18:38,440 requesting and the options there are other, uh, 304 00:18:38,440 --> 00:18:40,760 contact me for approval before getting in print, 305 00:18:40,760 --> 00:18:44,480 when an ebook is available automatically switch to print when an ebook is 306 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:47,400 unavailable and just easier requesting overall, 307 00:18:48,030 --> 00:18:49,750 you can see how many people chose those. 308 00:18:50,410 --> 00:18:55,110 But we were very interested in seeing if people wanted to be contacted 309 00:18:55,290 --> 00:18:59,790 or wanted something automatically switched so that we could make an even clearer 310 00:19:00,030 --> 00:19:03,230 determination that the method we're using is the one we should be using. 311 00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:07,860 There was a slight preference for automatically switching, but honestly, 312 00:19:07,860 --> 00:19:09,740 that split is so even that, 313 00:19:09,820 --> 00:19:14,450 I don't think that we got a major takeaway from there on the right side. 314 00:19:14,690 --> 00:19:17,610 I also gave you some, uh, 315 00:19:17,950 --> 00:19:20,370 an overview of what those other responses were. 316 00:19:20,830 --> 00:19:24,610 So about 37 respondents wanted just simply wanted more eBooks. 317 00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:27,120 They wanted more content available as eBooks. 318 00:19:27,120 --> 00:19:29,640 They wanted to be able to get them. All of those things. 319 00:19:30,210 --> 00:19:34,600 Seven people specifically mentioned better discovery from our 320 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:38,680 resources of ebook content and what ebook content is available to them. 321 00:19:39,140 --> 00:19:42,440 And then the rest were more or less one off requests for, uh, 322 00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:45,750 specific improvements. So that was our bigger takeaway. 323 00:19:46,170 --> 00:19:50,270 We in resource sharing can't necessarily do a lot about getting more eBooks, 324 00:19:50,370 --> 00:19:53,790 but we can share this information with our acquisitions department and our 325 00:19:53,790 --> 00:19:56,510 selectors in case it means anything to them. 326 00:19:59,910 --> 00:20:02,450 So now that we've told you about our fill rate and our workflow, 327 00:20:02,590 --> 00:20:05,200 we also wanted to talk a little bit about what's next, 328 00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:09,520 coming down the pike for eBooks. Uh, we personally out, 329 00:20:09,620 --> 00:20:14,360 out of doing this analysis also found an issue with our automation where ebook 330 00:20:14,360 --> 00:20:15,480 requests were going out, 331 00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:20,280 just move our big 10 Alliance partners as print requests because of the way 332 00:20:20,340 --> 00:20:21,760 the automation was working. 333 00:20:22,180 --> 00:20:26,960 We were able to make adjustments to this in some of the ways that Ashley noted 334 00:20:27,300 --> 00:20:29,600 so that these requests are no longer going out. 335 00:20:29,900 --> 00:20:33,160 We had gotten some feedback on the survey that, uh, 336 00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:36,400 somebody asks for an ebook and they get a print and they said they could not, 337 00:20:37,270 --> 00:20:40,690 uh, they would not accept an alternate format and they were confused about it. 338 00:20:41,150 --> 00:20:42,760 It turns out this was the culprit. 339 00:20:43,220 --> 00:20:46,920 So it's very good news that we've fixed this and this part of it should be 340 00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:48,240 running a lot more smoothly. 341 00:20:50,390 --> 00:20:54,650 The next steps really are the need to establish best practices across libraries, 342 00:20:55,070 --> 00:20:58,930 uh, for requesting eBooks, not only for requesting eBooks, 343 00:20:58,990 --> 00:21:01,410 but for making sure that they're discoverable, 344 00:21:01,830 --> 00:21:03,570 but really the question remains as to like, 345 00:21:03,570 --> 00:21:07,400 what are those best practices and who should be in charge of them? 346 00:21:07,690 --> 00:21:11,160 There needs to be some group who takes, uh, 347 00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:15,960 leadership in this area so that we all can sort of be doing the same things 348 00:21:16,260 --> 00:21:19,240 and understand the records and the requests in the same way. 349 00:21:20,900 --> 00:21:24,120 For us specifically, we are part of the big 10 academic Alliance, 350 00:21:24,540 --> 00:21:26,830 and they have released an ebook report. 351 00:21:26,830 --> 00:21:30,510 Hopefully this URL isn't too rough for you to type in if you wanna review it. 352 00:21:31,170 --> 00:21:34,150 Uh, the task force released the report, 353 00:21:34,480 --> 00:21:39,030 which included support for license and negotiation and a potential future 354 00:21:39,220 --> 00:21:43,830 toolkit that could be developed to help negotiate license and help come up with 355 00:21:43,830 --> 00:21:46,020 some best practices. Uh, 356 00:21:46,130 --> 00:21:49,580 this report has not been operationalized in any way yet, 357 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:53,500 but we're looking forward in keeping an eye out for opportunities to participate 358 00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:57,220 in that, uh, as maybe a starting ground for us to make ebook, 359 00:21:57,330 --> 00:22:02,130 borrowing and lending a little bit easier. If you're interested in eBooks, 360 00:22:02,130 --> 00:22:05,880 you may also be thinking about CDL or controlled digital lending. 361 00:22:06,600 --> 00:22:11,160 I just wanna mention here that it is something that is definitely on our radar 362 00:22:11,820 --> 00:22:15,080 and the process could essentially be the same in many ways, 363 00:22:15,300 --> 00:22:18,480 if that was something that gets more broadly expanded to in the inter library 364 00:22:18,480 --> 00:22:19,313 loan world, 365 00:22:19,420 --> 00:22:22,910 but talking about controlled digital lending is basically a whole nother 366 00:22:22,910 --> 00:22:26,550 presentation. So we're not gonna get into it just that, uh, 367 00:22:26,580 --> 00:22:30,710 similar workflows could be used on, on those types of objects. 368 00:22:31,210 --> 00:22:34,470 And there is plenty out there you can read about it if you aren't quite sure 369 00:22:34,470 --> 00:22:36,110 what controlled digital lending is, 370 00:22:36,610 --> 00:22:40,820 but the basis is that it would be taking a print book and turning it into an 371 00:22:40,820 --> 00:22:42,380 electronic book, uh, 372 00:22:42,400 --> 00:22:46,100 and doing sort of a one for one access model for the ebook version. 373 00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:47,940 As you sequester the print book, 374 00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:54,140 that's the end of our presentation. Um, 375 00:22:54,270 --> 00:22:56,500 we're happy for you to reach out to us if you have, 376 00:22:59,770 --> 00:23:02,360 thank you so much for attending our presentation. As I said, 377 00:23:02,360 --> 00:23:03,910 please feel free to reach out to us. 378 00:23:03,910 --> 00:23:06,590 If you do wanna chat eBooks and inter library loan, 379 00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:09,080 we're always happy to do that. Um, 380 00:23:09,080 --> 00:23:11,840 you can find us both at the university of Maryland college park. 381 00:23:12,690 --> 00:23:15,310 So thank very much for listening to our virtual talk.