2020 Poster Sessions:
ILL Loan Periods: What Do Researchers Need?

Intended Audience

Academic Libraries, Library Leadership, Resource Sharing or Access Services
 

Poster Summary and Objectives

The length of Interlibrary Loan (ILL) loan periods is the source of frequent conversations and listserv discussions. Research shows that longer ILL loan periods create better efficiency and improve library staff workflows, but what do scholars actually need? Our assumption at Florida State University was that our researchers needed longer loan periods, and so we sought out to investigate. We wanted to know how our graduate students and faculty members were using books requested through ILL and how long they needed them. This poster will describe our multi-method approach to discover those answers. We found that the majority of renewal requests and overdue books have original due dates of 60 days or less, we learned that most scholars request books in order to read the entire book, and we learned that most are required to return their books before they are ready. When asked straight up, 67% said that they need loan periods of 90 days or longer. This poster will advocate for greater access in a time when more libraries are adopting a distributive model of collection development, and will conclude by addressing a common fear that libraries have of increased loan periods.

Presenter

• This poster is based on the research published in the following article: 

Dan Schoonover, Velma Smith & James Elliott (2019) Due Dates and Loan Periods: The Impact on Faculty and Graduate Research, Journal of Interlibrary Loan, Document Delivery & Electronic Reserve, 28:1-2, 1-11, DOI: 10.1080/1072303X.2019.1635952