The behemoth in the library.
Recently I had an enquirer who wanted a book from a library in a neighbouring county. We knew it was there because we checked their catalogue and it said it was available. He had a choice between driving 45 minutes to collect the book, (or taking his chances with public transport!) and asking me to get the book through an inter library loan that could take several weeks and would cost him £2.
Guess which option he chose? I gave him the phone number and he went away happy in the knowledge that he would be able to get hold of the book fairly readily.
How different that would have been if, in the system I was using, I could have identified the work he wanted, then made a call to find the nearest library, then set a “please deliver to…†flag on that book. Entered the borrowers address and told him that it should be with him by the end of the week.
What would we need to make that work? Some interoperability of library systems, combined with a dash of ingenuity a willingness to work together and a reliable delivery service.
For some this may not be an inspiring thought; I have visions of books being wisked off the shelves in one part of the country and landing on a doormat somewhere else, without cominng anywhere near the requesting library’s ILL department – cutting out a whole layer of staff time and delay to the borrower. We could use those plastic wrappers that have return postage paid, simply tear off the gummy tape and pop it back in the post box when you have finished. or take it back to your local library who “will walk it home†safely.
Libraries can denote particular useful but not so often used stock as ‘OK to go’, while other core stock is reserved for users inside the main catchment area. This way you can open up access to the long tail of the lizzardy behemoth that is the underused library stock.
Technorati Tags: library, inter library loan, library 2.0, delivery, the long tail