Direct Request for Articles:
A new service from OCLC
Ralph Alberico, JMU
Charla Lancaster, VT
Renee Reighart, UVa
VIVA Interlibrary Loan Community Forum, 2011
What is Direct Request?
Pre-2010: Direct Request was unmediated
borrowing for Loans in WCRS and ILLiad
2010-present: Direct Request for Loans
AND…
Direct Request for Articles (DRA)
Formally known as ALIAS, Integrated
Fulfillment, and Direct Article
What is DRA?
Direct Request for Articles is system that allows article
requests to be automatically sent to libraries that have
licensed the content being requested and whose license
agreement allows them to fill the request. Focus on ECONTENT!
DRA is fully integrated with WRS and ILLiad v.8.0.8.0
•
“Libraries that use the OCLC WorldCat Resource Sharing interface have the same
functionality as libraries that use ILLiad. Their lending requests will contain hot links
directly to electronic articles, eliminating the need to consult multiple sources to
determine article locations. WorldCat Resource Sharing libraries may also choose to
implement the use of the Direct Request feature to further benefit from this new
functionality. (Note that use of the Direct Request feature in WorldCat Resource Sharing
requires a subscription to WorldCat on FirstSearch and use of the customizable request
form in the FirstSearch service).”
Brief history of Direct Request
for Articles
• Originally developed by IDS Project in New York state
(ALIAS)
• Was turned over to OCLC for further development in
Spring of 2009 – a joint venture with IDS, OCLC, and
Atlas
• Project piloted by OCLC starting February of 2010
with 14 institutions
• OCLC launched service to any school with WRS or
cataloging subscription in Fall 2010
How it works
DRA System Components
License Manager
Contains information on license agreements negotiated
by your institution for electronic content (databases, fulltext journals, but can also include open source
repositories)
Knowledge Base
Contains bibliographic and local holdings information for
full-text content providers like e-journal packages
WorldCat Resource Manager
DRA Initial Setup
1. Tell OCLC you would like to participate in
DRA/complete WorldCat Knowledge Base request form
2. Upload holdings to WCKB (using Pubget or exporting
from local system)
3. Enter license information for holdings (using OCLC
configuration manager; easier if you have an ERM)
4. Create Custom Holdings Groups and Paths
5. Create routing rules and constant data
DRA fulfillment workflow
What does it look like?
Advantages
• Leverages electronic content
• Saves staff time and effort
• Flexibility (turn it off and on again)
• Good for use in times of staff
vacation, weekends, or holidays
Advantages: Borrowing
• Unmediated borrowing + trusted sender =
requests that fill themselves
• Requests for e-content licensed by your
institution available in request
Advantages: Lending
• Can use service in Lending module
independent of Borrowing
• Article-level link to licensed e-content
available at the request level
• Less time spent pulling physical item from
stacks
• Less time spent scanning articles
How well does it work?
UVa DR/DRA Statistics
JMU DR/DRA Statistics
Articles: 336 sent via
DRA, 30 Unfilled.
91% success rate.
Articles: 108 sent via
DRA, 3 Unfilled.
97% success rate
Loans: 337 sent via DR,
19 Unfilled.
94% success rate.
Loans: 78 sent via DR,
4 Unfilled.
95% success rate.
from 6/14/2011 through 7/11/2011
Maintaining the Knowledge Base
Maintaining the KB
Pubget: company working with OCLC to update
WCKB holdings information for your library
Pros and Cons of Pubget
• free, saves you from having to manually update KB
information when your library drops an individual
journal or package
• offers full-text searching of your subscriptions,
pulling up direct links to PDFs on its results page.
• requires sharing of vendor admin ids and passwords
under terms of OCLC agreement
• Pubget does not have relationships with all vendors
How it works
1. Sign-up for WCKB and OCLC will activate a Pubget account for
you
2. You supply Pubget with admin id and password for each vendor
platform
3. Pubget tests with each vendor and works with you to resolve
issues (JMU has 69 collections turned on; Pubget has vendor
relationships for 6845 collections)
4. Pubget obtains holdings information directly from vendors and
holdings are updated automatically
5. You add new vendors (or delete old ones) from Pubget as
licenses change
6. After Pubget has updated holdings in WCKB, you use OCLC
Service Configuration to enter ILL terms from a pick list
Considerations….
• How will it effect staff?
• Do you need library-wide buy-in for DRA
success at your institution?
Big Picture Considerations
•
•
•
•
Leverages sunk costs with OCLC
Increases exposure for e-collections
Makes life easier for ILL patrons and staff
Will not function optimally until WCKB
participation reaches critical mass
• Requires new workflow for KB
management; cooperation between ILL,
Serials and Cataloging units
Additional Big Picture Considerations
• Results in more requests for e-articles licensed
by VIVA from WCKB participants outside of
VIVA
• Requires duplicate entry of license terms;
“generic licenses” promise future relief
• Replicates management of existing serials KB
• Increases need for accurate and up-to-date
holdings & license information
• In future, may apply to other formats, e.g. ebooks
VIVA WCKB Participants
from Policies Directory
KBIL=using WCKB
KBWC=Signed up for WCKB
College of William & Mary (VWM)*
Eastern Mennonite (VEM)*
JMU (VMC)*
Jefferson Labs (VWC)
University of Virginia (VA@)*
Washington & Lee Law (VLL)*
Central Rappahannock Regional Library
(RR1)
Hampden-Sydney College (VHS)*
Virginia Military Institute (VMI)*
Virginia Tech (VPI)*
* 8 VIVA schools are participating
out of 289 nationwide.
Our Experiences…
Resources and Information
VIVA ILL Wiki
Atlas Documentation
WorldCat Knowledge Base
THANK YOU!
Ralph Alberico alberira@jmu.edu
Charla Lancaster charla70@vt.edu
Renee Reighart rar6u@virginia.edu