Evaluating Resource-Sharing Performance in an Academic Health Sciences Library Utilizing the RapidILLSystem

To stay in line with user needs and workflow demands, interlibrary loan officers must continuously incorporate innovative technologies into their departments. Evaluating the usefulness of these new systems to ensure appropriate implementation can be a large undertaking, as there are many issues to address during such an assessment. This study tracked the interlibrary loan activity from June through November 2005, 2007, and 2008 of Tufts University Hirsh Health Sciences Library, in order to explore the advantages and disadvantages of participating in the RapidILL resource-sharing system. Volume changes, breadth of resource-sharing circles, transactional fees, staffing needs, turnaround time, and fill rate were the main facets of interlibrary loan borrowing and lending activity analyzed.