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Automation reaches the Document Supply Service of the National Library

For many years the Document Supply Service at the National Library of Australia has been keen to automate the interlibrary loan and document delivery ( ILL) process. Automation has been seen as an opportunity to streamline processes and improve efficiency and—of prime importance—to offer a better service to our users.

In January this year a Request for Quotation was issued and after a lengthy and competitive evaluation process, an ILL management system was selected in July. The National Library ILL requirements listed in the RFQ are available on the National Library website. The system selected was Relais Enterprise, a product of the Canadian firm Relais International Inc. This system will allow the library to process all ILL requests through the one system. It will not only handle Kinetica Document Delivery requests and requests from libraries, but will also manage the Copies Direct service.

The implementation project is currently underway. The first phase is expected to go live in mid October with the system in full production by December.

So how will it impact on Document Supply Service users? For KDD users, there will be no change at all. The National Library will be an ISO library like so many others. Libraries will be able to request material through KDD and use the KDD payment system. Copies Direct users will experience no change either, except that in the longer term they will be able to not only place requests for material but also to monitor progress through the supply process. For other libraries, we expect that over time there will be new ways of interacting with us. There will be a web form for libraries to enter requests, or libraries may prefer to send the request as a formatted email. Sending the Library a formatted email request, or filling out the ILL web form, will see requests handled quicker because they will feed directly into the automated system. We expect this change to take some time but we’re looking forward to working with libraries to improve our service.

Margarita Moreno

Manager,
Document Delivery Service