[Service Points]

SOME FACTS and FIGURES - 3/94


Have you ever wondered how many Interlibrary loan requests are processed and supplied by the Document Supply Service? Who our largest clients are? What type of material is most frequently supplied by us? This issue of Service Points aims to answer these questions, based on statistics kept during the 1993/94 financial year and also our regularly conducted in-house surveys.

1. Requests received and supplied

Your responses to our survey confirmed that we are the largest supplier of interlibrary loan material in Australia. In 1993/94 we received 141,403 requests. Approximately 10% of these were referred to other areas of supply, principally Newspapers/Microcopy and Asian Collections. Those remaining (132,787) were processed within the Document Supply Service.

2. Satisfaction rates

We are very pleased with our level of supply and are continually searching for ways to improve it. In 1993/94 we were able to supply 98,342 items (approx 70% of all requests received). This kept our 8 photocopiers very busy as 77,855 (or 80%) of these items were supplied as copies of articles, sent by either mail, fax or Ariel. The remainding 20,487 (20%) were supplied as loans of either monographs or microfoms.

A method of supplying articles which we have recently introduced is the Ariel document delivery service. The main users of this service are universities who value its quality and speed of delivery. Its popularity amongst this client group is shown by the fact that in one year Ariel delivery overtook fax delivery.

3. Methods of requesting

Our collection is available to users throughout Australia and overseas; this means that a variety of methods of requesting are used. The ABN ILL subsystem and ILANET are the most commonly used methods of requesting; in 1993/94 they respectively made up 34.5% and 31.8% of all requests received. Many of our clients still use mail to forward requests to us; in 1993/94 mail requests made up 18% of requests received. Other methods of requesting include fax and email, both of which are growing.

4. Who are our clients?

It is always of interest to us to know who are our clients. By far the largest are the Australian universities who send to us over 50% of all our requests. Other major groups include state and federal government departments, hospitals and various statutory bodies. In total, our regular customers, both Australian and overseas, number approximately 700.

5. Where do they come from?

Our most recent survey told us that our largest group of requestors come from Victoria, with nearly 29% of all requests received originating in that state. The next largest place of origin is New South Wales (22%) followed by Queensland (13%) and the ACT (10%). Requests sent to us from overseas make up 5.6% percent of all requests and are largely requests for Australiana.

6. Who works in the Document Supply Service?

The Document Supply Service has approximately 30 staff members, comprising three professional librarians and Administrative Service Officers. All staff are involved in some way in the processing and eventual supply of your interlibrary loan. Many have been employed in the area for a number of years and have accumulated a vast deal of knowledge about the collections of the National Library and their idiosyncracies. We supplement this core group of staff with a number of temporary staff who are employed during our peak demand periods to assist us in meeting our target processing times. Staff are divided into four work groups; the underlying principle behind this organisation being a division by origin of request, with other responsibilities being allocated equally amongst the groups eg the management of our ABN ILL subsystem requests.

7. Services provided

The main services provided by the area to clients are as follows. Further details are available upon request. All services are charged for at the ACLIS rates.

Standard service: processes requests for all types of material in order of receipt. Items may be delivered by courier (loans only), ordinary mail, fax or Ariel.

FAST TRACK: processes requests for all types of material within 24 hours of receipt. Items may be delivered by courier (loans only), express post, fax or Ariel.

FAST TRACK PLUS: processes requests for articles only within 2 hours of receipt. Items are only delivered by fax.

ADONIS service: provides article delivery from journals held on the ADONIS document delivery service

Australian locations service: provides to selected clientele Australian locations for material not held by the National Library

Voucher sales: sells interlibrary loan vouchers (to a maximum of 100 vouchers) to those libraries who are not members of ALIA.


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