Sue Costantini has served as Coordinator of Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Services since 2000. Aside from providing great service to students and faculty, Sue is the person to invite to a party, as she always come with wonderful home-cooked food. To get an update on the state of ILL, I asked Sue the following questions.
How long does it take to receive items from other libraries? Do some sorts of items come quicker than others?
It all depends on the request. If the request is for an item that many libraries have then they come very quickly. For example, an article requested that has a lot of library holdings and is being sent electronically could come the same day it is requested.
A request for a book that is available locally usually gets here within 2-3 days since it is sent via Courier. A book not available locally will be mailed to us. That normally takes 7-10 days. There are times, however, that the request is a difficult one that has few holdings. They do take longer to get but we do our best and don’t give up easily.
Can you explain how the new interlibrary loan system (Illiad) has changed and, hopefully, improved service?
The new ILLiad system has definitely improved service. Patrons are able to request the items at home or anywhere there is a computer. They are able to track the status of their requests, renew their books, cancel requests, download their electronic documents, etc. Using ILLiad we are able to quickly and efficiently process and track requests. All of the request tracking used to be done manually. We had to print out the hard copies of the requests and file them in the appropriate stages of process. We had to call or send individual emails to inform patrons when there request came in. There was much more chance of human error than there is now.
Is it true some items you receive come as electronic documents? How does this work for the person who requests the item?
Yes it is true. We try to receive as many articles electronically as we can. It is very easy for the patron. An email is sent to the patron with a link. When you click on the link your log in to ILLiad will come up. You simply log in and scroll down to View/download electronically received article. You click on that and your article will come up.
Are some times of the semester busier than others?
Yes, it is the busiest right before all of the papers are due. That is usually right before mid-terms and right before finals.
Can a person request a film through interlibrary loan?
Yes they can. We have worked hard to find libraries that will loan us film and other audio-visual materials. They sometimes do take a bit longer to get depending on the request. They all come from non local libraries because local libraries don’t loan AV materials through Interlibrary loan.
How many people work in your department?
Besides myself I have 3 part time employees and try to get 3 work study students.
What part of your job do you like the best? The worst?
I like the challenge of the difficult requests. It is an accomplishment for me to be able to get a patron that hard to get request that they need. I also enjoy working with the college students at Saint Rose. I like to think they keep me young.
The worst part of the job is dealing with the issue of a book that isn’t returned or gets lost. It doesn’t happen very often but when it does it is such a pain to try to track it down or have our library eventually have to pay for it.
Do you have any advice for someone filling out an Illiad request form?
Yes I do as a matter of fact. Give us as much information as you can find especially the ISBN number of the book or the ISSN of the journal. It makes the requesting go so much quicker for the ILL staff.
Besides filling out an Illiad request form, how do people get in touch with staff in interlibrary loan?
Please feel free to call me or stop by to see me if there are any questions, comments, or issues involving interlibrary loan. We work hard to be very “user friendly” and welcome the feedback. My telephone number is 454-2155 and email address is costants@strose.edu
The majority of students and faculty never visit The College Archives, located on the third floor of the Neil Hellman Library. And that’s too bad, because there are so many interesting things there.
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