MLA 2004, NLM Online Users' Meeting 2004: Questions and Answers

uestion:
What is the take home message for us for the interaction between Loansome Doc^® and ILLiad? When will that be smoothed out?

Answer:
A DOCLINE^® library choosing to use the ISO ILL Protocol to interface between a third-party interlibrary loan management system such as ILLiad and the DOCLINE system can no longer be a Loansome Doc provider for the following reasons:

• The ISO ILL Protocol standard currently supports interlibrary loan messaging between libraries only. It does not support messaging of patron-initiated requests between patrons and providing libraries.
  
  
• Allowing libraries to remain providers via Loansome Doc would require a 'split' interface to DOCLINE, where DOCLINE interlibrary loan requests are received directly into the third-party system via the Protocol, but Loansome Doc requests are received, downloaded, and processed manually in both DOCLINE and the third-party system.

Instead, DOCLINE libraries adopting the Protocol interface would use PubMed's^® Document Delivery Service to receive patron-initiated requests directly into their third-party ILL system. The Document Delivery Service is preferred over Outside Tool because it allows patrons to order multiple citations at a time. Outside Tool allows patrons to order only one citation at a time. Questions on PubMed's Document Delivery Service should be sent to lib-linkout@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. The benefits of using this method to receive patron-initiated requests are as follows:

• Libraries receive patron-initiated requests directly into their third-party ILL system for processing, reporting, and billing.
  
  
• Patrons can track all of their requests submitted to that library through the third-party system.

NLM will be working closely with Atlas Systems as they develop the interface for patron-initiated requests. Detailed information on the interface will be provided through FAQs to assist libraries with the transition. The first Protocol-compliant version of DOCLINE is scheduled for release during late summer/early fall of 2004. Information about NLM's implementation and interlibrary loan management systems that will be tested with DOCLINE is available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/faqdocline.html#protocol

Question:
Of the not filled rate, do you know the percentage that falls in the category of Not-Yet-Received?

Answer:
Requests that could not be filled due to Not-Yet-Received are generally because of the early submission of citations into PubMed. While the early availability of citations in PubMed is beneficial in many ways, it does present challenges to libraries responding to user requests for these materials. In DOCLINE and Loansome Doc, we'll be looking at what we can do to alert users that the materials they are requesting are ahead of print. We want to give users as much information as possible about the citation that they're requesting.

[Note: Over the 40 days prior to May 24, 2004, Not-Yet-Received was selected as the Not Filled reason 14.62% of the time where the request retired as Beyond Routing Map.]

Question:
Speaking of the Not Filled statistic, are those counted before or after an unfilled request is resubmitted? In other words, how are resubmitted requests counted?

Answer:
All resubmitted requests are counted as a new request so resubmits are included in the Not Filled statistics. If a request retires as a No Fill, and the library resubmits that request which is then Filled, the statistics show one request Not Filled and one request Filled.

Question:
So the fill rate is better than it looks?

Answer:
Yes.

[Note: Over the 40 days prior to May 24, 2004, resubmits accounted for 2.24% of orders placed.]

Question:
How many subscriptions for Index Medicus^® was NLM filling?

Answer:
There are currently fewer than 200 Index Medicus subscriptions worldwide. I'm sure many of those subscriptions are continued because Index Medicus is relatively inexpensive. Many years ago there were 7-8,000 subscriptions, but the numbers have dwindled considerably.

MLA 2004, NLM Online Users' Meeting 2004: Questions and Answers. NLM Tech Bull. 2004 Jul-Aug;(339):e3c.