Effective and automated handling of end user requests in Danish National Union catalogue10th IFLA ILDS Conference 2007Singapore, 29th – 31st October 2007

Anders-Henrik Petersen & Rikke LoseDanish Bibliographic Centre (DBC)ahp@dbc.dk rlo@dbc.dk

Denmark – Northern Europe

Inhabitants: 5.4 mio. National libraries: 2University and research libraries: 186Public libraries: 98

DanBib bibliotek.dk • For the Danish

population• Content: Danish national

bibliography + holdings of Danish Libraries User interface: simple and easy – for the general public – English version

• Loan requests are sent to the library used by the end-user

• http://bibliotek.dk

• For library professionals• Content: as bibliotek.dk

plus records from Library of Congress, BNB, ISSN etc. – for reuse and verification User interface for the professionals

• Loan requests: inter library loans (ILL)

Why automate?Manual handling of bibliotek.dk requests

And this could be done automatically!

Why automate?Benefits:• Less manual work• Better turnaround time• Better service to end users

Automate what?Let the ILL-server (and not the staff):1. Find the libraries that have the item 2. Find the library that delivers first,

within the time limit specified by the end user

3. Turn the loan request into an ILL-request to the lending library

4. And – the end user is not involved in the ILL-process!

Some issues• Records covering different editions

of same work• Type of material• Brand new titles• Local restrictions in ILL-Policy

Solving the edition problemFRBR-inspired display and ordering of records

Solving the policy issues• Mutual accept

•requesting and responding libraries•Each requesting library specifies

which libraries to send requests to (or all)

• Each library specifies:•Automate or not for each material

type•The title must be older than xxx days

Modelautomated ILL-requests from bibliotek.dk

Results so farLaunched 8th May 2007Status October 2007:• 104 libaries generate automated

ILL-Requests (possible: 262)• 101 libaries receive automated ILL-

Requests (possible: 160)

September 2007 • Requests from bibliotek.dk

• Total number of requests: 97596 • Automated ILL-Requests: 48059 • Not automated requests: 41606 • Held by users library: 7931• ”Automation ratio”:

•53,5 %

48059*2/60 = 1600 hrs. of work saved

September 2007- public librariesHvidovre Public Library• Total bibliotek.dk-requests: 940 • From this, automated requets: 602• That is 64%

Copenhagen Public Library• Total bibliotek.dk-requests: 9491 • From this, automated requets: 5454• That is 57%

Further development (2008)

Most important:• A new option: only automate the

request if the material is on shelf in the responding library

• A new option: automate requests for material held in the user’s library if it is not on shelf

Thank you !Anders-Henrik Petersen & Rikke LoseDanish Bibliographic Centre (DBC)ahp@dbc.dk - rlo@dbc.dk

http://www.dbc.dk - http://bibliotek.dk http://www.danbib.dk/index.php?doc=english