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Carolyn and I presented a poster session titled “Utilizing ILL Deflection to Improve Workflow” on Thursday, October 18. Many fellow librarians stopped by and inquired about the new OCLC ILL deflection feature.

As an ILL lender, we receive requests for all types of materials. Popular movies and TV series, such as 24 and Sex and the City are among the most requested titles. Due to the high demand in house, these requests are routinely canceled.

I approached Carolyn after I learned the details for the ILL deflection at the ILLiad conference this March. I wanted to deflect some selected titles, so the ILL staff doesn’t have to spend time to say “no” to requests, such as “Yellow Rolls-Royce”, which only four libraries show holding in WorldCat.

I wasn’t familiar with the web Connextion for Cataloging and I didn’t understand some of the fields in the MARC record. Carolyn was very helpful, and together we came up with a procedure to deflect titles we will not loan through ILL.

With ILL deflection, we are able to deflect those titles, so we will no longer receive those requests. They will automatically move down to the next lender. This lowers the turnaround time and borrowers can deliver materials to their patrons faster. We, on the other hand can spend more time on other requests, which improves our workflow.

The ILL department works closely with the Cataloging department, because ILL staff is probably one of the heaviest users of the catalog. We often bring questionable cataloging records to the Cataloging staff for updates. So, it is particularly rewarding to collaborate with Carolyn on this presentation. We had fun putting it together.