Form 1 NLM DOCLINE Customer Service Survey Instrument

OMB Control Number: 0925-0648
Expiration Date: March 31, 2018
Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 12 minutes per
response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and
maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. An agency
may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information
unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding this burden estimate
or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to:
NIH, Project Clearance Branch, 6705 Rockledge Drive, MSC 7974, Bethesda, MD 208927974, ATTN: PRA
(09250648). Do not return the completed form to this address.
___________________________________________________________________________________

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) provides the DOCLINE interlibrary loan request system to assist
medical libraries with their resource sharing needs. The DOCLINE system grew out of needs and ideas
expressed by NNLM member libraries, specifically the OCTANET system funded by NLM contract in
1982. NLM is conducting a survey of current interlibrary loan practices to help us better understand the
needs of health science libraries today and in the future. The information you provide will help NLM plan
for future products and services, and the role of NLM and all medical libraries in resource sharing in the
National Network of Libraries of Medicine and Canada. Your participation is voluntary and all of your
responses will be kept private to the extent allowed by law. You will be presented with 28-30 questions,
depending on your responses. We estimate the survey will take about 12 minutes to complete. Please
answer the questions from your own experience and coordinate responses within your library so only
one survey per library is submitted. Thank you for your time. Your answers are very important to us. If
you have questions, or additional comments, please use our contact form.
______________________________________________________________________

General ILL Questions
1.

Which type best describes your library or host organization?






2.

Academic
Hospital
Government
Special/association
Other
What is your primary role in interlibrary loan?

 Library director
 Supervise/oversee ILL

 Perform ILL
 One person library
3.

How many people work at your library?







4.

1
2 to 5
6 to 10
11 to 15
16 to 20
21 or more

What ILL management software do you use? Check all that apply.







ILLiad
Clio
QuickDoc
Relais
Other
None

5. What ILL systems do you use? Check all that apply.
Do not use now
and do not plan
to use

Infrequently
use

Frequently use

Do not use now,
but plan to use in
future

State/regional system
RapidILL
OCLC/WorldShare
DOCLINE
Other

General ILL Questions, continued
6.
Approximately how much time does all of your library staff, including you, spend on ILL
borrowing and lending each week?







0 - 10 hours
11 - 20 hours
21 - 30 hours
31 - 40 hours
41 - 50
51+

 Not sure

7.

In the next two years, do you anticipate the total staff time spent on ILL to:
Decrease a lot

8.

Decrease
somewhat

Stay the same

Increase
somewhat

Increase a lot

Not sure

Indicate your level of agreement with the following statements:
Strongly
disagree

Disagree

Neither
agree nor
disagree

Agree

Strongly agree

Not sure

I have
adequate
staff to
support
ILL
borrowing
I have
adequate
staff to
support
ILL lending
I have
adequate
budget to
cover ILL
borrowing
costs
(copyright
and
lender
fees)

9.
In the next two years, do you anticipate decreasing or increasing your total ILL budget, including
funds for staff, equipment, software, and lending and copyright fees?
Decrease a lot

Decrease
somewhat

Stay the same

Increase
somewhat

Increase a lot

Not sure

10.
Approximately what percentage of your annual borrowing requests are filled for free by
lenders?






Less than 25%
25% to 50%
51% to 75%
More than 75%
Not sure

Collections, Electronic Resources and ILL

11.
Over the past two years the total number of journal titles your library subscribed to and/or
licensed:
Decreased a lot
12.

Decreased somewhat

Stayed the same

Increased somewhat

Indicate your level of agreement with the following statements:
Strongly Disagree
disagree

My journal
collection is
primarily
electronic
journals
My e-journal
licenses
generally
permit me to
provide ILL
It is easy for
my ILL staff to
know the
license terms
for a specific ejournal and
apply them to
a specific ILL
lending
request

Neither
agree nor
disagree

Agree

Strongly
agree

Not sure

13.

The date coverage of your journal collection primarily consists of:





Latest 5 - 10 years
Fairly complete journal runs
Date coverage varies by title
Not sure

14.
If your licenses do not generally permit interlibrary lending, what restrictions are the most
troublesome? Check all that apply.










15.

Not applicable
I cannot provide ILL at all from e-journals
Restrictions related to delivery method
Restrictions related to international lending
Restrictions related to for-profit libraries
Restrictions related to sending material to unaffiliated users
Embargo periods
Not sure
Other (please specify): ___________________

In the next two years, do you expect the number of your journal subscriptions to:

Decrease a lot

Decrease
somewhat

Stay the same

Increase
somewhat

Increase a
lot

Not sure

Collections, Electronic Resources and ILL, continued
16. I expect the number of journal titles in my collection to increase because of the following (check all
that apply):








Budget increase
Space increase
Collection development decisions based on user needs
Participation in consortia buying packages
Shift to patron-driven acquisitions
Other
Not sure

Collections, Electronic Resources and ILL, continued

17. I expect the number of journal titles in my collection to decrease because of the following (check all
that apply):









Budget reduction
Space reduction
Collection development driven by patron requests as well as usage statistics
Participation in consortia buying packages
Patrons prefer using point-of-care resources, e.g., DynaMed, UpToDate
Shift to using pay-per-view
Not sure
Other

Borrowing and Lending
18. Over the past two years the number of ILL borrowing requests I have initiated for my patrons has:
Decreased a lot

Decreased
somewhat

Stayed the
same

Increased
somewhat

Increased a lot

Not sure

Borrowing and Lending, continued
19. You indicated that your ILL borrowing requests have increased. Check all reasons why you think
borrowing has increased:









Patrons are requesting titles our library has cancelled
We now offer unmediated ILL
Patrons need embargoed articles from our titles
Patrons need items not included in our subscriptions, ex. supplements We are serving a
new/different patron group
Patrons need articles to support evidence-based practice decisions
We have implemented new discovery tools
Not sure
Other

Borrowing and Lending, continued
20. You indicated that your ILL borrowing requests have decreased. Check all reasons why you think
borrowing has decreased:
 Our library is subscribing to more full text
 More free full-text and open access sources overall









Patrons are finding needed items themselves
Library offers purchase on demand or pay per view
Patrons are choosing material that is immediately available, rather than requesting ILL
Patrons prefer point-of-care tools, rather than journal articles
Patrons are obtaining needed items through personal contacts
Other
Not sure

Borrowing and Lending, continued
21.
What are the kinds of materials you most frequently borrow via ILL for patrons? Check all that
apply.











22.

Articles outside date range owned/subscribed
Titles outside library’s subject scope
E-pub ahead of print not available as subscribed
Material not part of subscription, i.e., supplements
Hard copy of e-holdings of books and journals
Formats that library doesn’t own such as A/Vs, DVDs
Foreign materials
Titles no longer held by the library
Other
Not sure

In the next two years do you expect the number of ILL borrowing requests from your patrons to:

Decrease a lot

23.

Decrease
somewhat

Stay the same

Increase
somewhat

Increase a lot

Not sure

Indicate your use of each of the following methods for obtaining literature for your patrons:
Do not
use now
and do
not plan
to use

Request items via ILL from another library
Purchase from publisher website
CCC Get it Now
Request item from colleagues on listserv
Purchase entire item/subscribe for user

Infrequently
use

Frequently
use

Do not use
now, but plan
to use in
future

Open source/free online sources
Purchase from commercial document
delivery service
Contact author of article
Pay per view from aggregators' website
(DeepDyve, etc.)

Borrowing and Lending, continued
24.
Why do you use methods other than ILL borrowing to obtain items for your patrons? Check all
that apply.







Patrons or library staff feel traditional ILL borrowing is too slow
Format or date of material makes it hard to find lenders
Material is too obscure or specialized to find lenders
Traditional borrowing (including copyright fees) is too expensive
My library isn’t as involved in reciprocal lending as it used to be
Traditional borrowing presents delivery problems (technical, administrative) that I don’t want to
deal with
 I would rather use purchase on demand or start a subscription
 I only use traditional ILL borrowing

25.
In the next two years what do you expect to be your top method for obtaining materials for your
patrons?






26.

Borrow from other libraries
Purchase from publisher or aggregator sites
Eliminate subscriptions and use pay-per-view model
Free sources (e.g. open access, author)
Not sure

Over the past two years the number of ILL lending requests I have filled for other libraries has:

Decreased a lot

Decreased
somewhat

Stayed the
same

Increased
somewhat

Increased a lot

Not sure

Borrowing and Lending, continued
27.

Why do you think your library is receiving fewer lend requests? Check all that apply.








28.

My collection has decreased
I dropped out of a library group
My library’s ILL fees increased
My library’s hours of operation decreased
My library reduced delivery options
E-journal licenses restrict my ability to lend
Not sure

In the next two years do you expect the number of ILL lending requests from other libraries to:

Decrease a lot

Decrease
somewhat

Stay the same

Increase
somewhat

Increase a lot

Not sure

DOCLINE
29.
Overall how well does the DOCLINE application meet your needs? Please answer about the
DOCLINE system, as opposed to your overall borrowing and lending experiences with Network
members.
Very
dissatisfied
30.

Neutral

Somewhat
satisfied

Very satisfied

Don't know

Overall how satisfied are you with Loansome Doc for receiving and processing patron requests?

Very
dissatisfied
31.

Somewhat
dissatisfied

Somewhat
dissatisfied

Neutral

Somewhat
satisfied

Very
satisfied

Don't know

Don’t use

What are your top priorities for enhancements to the DOCLINE system? Choose three.
 Improve use of embargo terms by DOCLINE routing algorithm
 Batch importing/updating of serial holdings records, including those exported from other
systems
 More options for setting lending availability
 Better integration with 3rd party vendor systems for borrowing and lending







Improve request reports with on demand creation andoptions for downloading
Time-based routing of requests to lenders
No improvement needed
Not sure
Other (Please specify)_______________________________________________________

Final Thoughts
32. Considering your experience with interlibrary loan in general, what would you like us to know about
or think about that we did not already ask?
_____________________________________________________________________________________