Chris Sharpe, MLIS 7700, 12/02/07
Research Proposal
Title: Electronic Document Delivery and its Impact on Interlibrary Loan Patrons: Kennesaw
State University
Abstract:
With the introduction of interlibrary loan (ILL) software programs such as Ariel,
Odyssey, and ILLiad electronic document delivery (EDD) has become much easier and faster in
recent years. This study will use quantitative methods to examine EDD and explore the impact
of this service on ILL patrons at Kennesaw State University (KSU) Sturgis library. A
questionnaire will be distributed and its results will provide data on the impact of EDD.
Borrowing reports from Sturgis library's ILL department will be analyzed to explore EDD usage.
Null hypotheses will be tested to determine if patron type, age, or frequency of received items
affect the level of impact.
Problem Statement:
Electronic document delivery (EDD) is the service of providing articles and book
chapters electronically to patrons. Does this service make a difference to library patrons?
Effectiveness and efficiency of EDD services have been examined but there is a lack of studies
on the impact of this service on its users. Impact in this study refers to the degree that EDD
assists in the research needs of the patrons. This study will conduct a quantitative evaluation of
EDD's impact on academic library patrons. Evaluation research identifies and collects data about
services, establishes success criteria and determines the quality of the service and if it
accomplished its goals (Hernon & McClure, 1990). The objective of this evaluation is to
identify the degree that EDD assists patrons in obtaining and organizing information as well as
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writing during their research process. This paper will examine EDD at Kennesaw State
University (KSU) Sturgis Library to describe how the service impacts its patrons. Because this
is a quantitative study three hypotheses will be tested:
H1: There is a significant relationship between patrons' status and the level of impact of
EDD on their research needs
H2: There is a significant relationship between patrons' age and the level of impact of
EDD on their research needs
H3: There is a significant relationship between patrons' frequency of received items
and the level of impact of EDD on their research needs
Literature Review:
In the age of web-based information services such as Google’s search engine, librarians
must consider their role in providing access to information when expectations of patrons are high
(Posner, 2007). If patrons are unable to find a desired item at their home institution they make a
borrowing request from the interlibrary loan (ILL) department. Two methods exist to
electronically delivery items to patrons: documents attached to email and documents posted on
web servers (Weible, 2004).
Evaluation of EDD procedures and implementation are numerous in the literature. Case
studies are popular and they report on staff reaction, resources needed and workflow (Beam,
1997; McKee, 1993; Yang, 2005). Some papers focus on the particular software used for
delivery ( Berger, 1996; Weible & Robben, 2002). For example, Berger (1996) described the
specifications of Ariel software, how to use it, and reported that it provided faster delivery time
and better quality. Policy and procedure comparisons examine methods of delivery, fees, patron
types and other aspects of various library document delivery services (Luzius, 2005; Smith &
Lynch, 1991). Luzius (2005) obtained information from Association of Research Libraries
(ARL) websites to see who was providing in-house document delivery and if they charged fees.
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Several user satisfaction studies have also been made. High satisfaction rates with comments on
the importance of turnaround time have been reported (Row, Shrode, & Smith, 2001; Stabler,
2002).
There have been impact studies in the field of library and information science. Urquhart
(2005) discussed assessing impact and how information services make a difference
educationally, socially and ways of working. Many of these studies report on the impact of
technology on library use. Surveys and focus groups were used at the University of Washington
libraries and revealed an increase in remote access to resources but a decline in library visits
(Hiller, 2002). LePoer and Mularski (1989) surveyed new and experienced CD-ROM users to
discover its impact on search requests and concluded most users would be students, they would
choose CD-ROM searches over librarian produced results, and that librarians' workload would
increase because of instruction and troubleshooting demands. As for document delivery
services, information from user surveys showed the services were found not to reduce library use
because it allowed patrons to be more productive while in the library (Mitchell & Walters, 1995,
p. 262).
Methodology:
The purpose of this study is to determine how EDD impacts KSU's Sturgis library
patrons in terms of their research needs. The researcher is employed in the ILL department at
KSU's Sturgis library and has chosen to investigate EDD at his home library which has been
delivering items electronically through the ILLiad management software since Fall 2004.
KSU
is a four year public university located in Kennesaw, Georgia and has an enrollment of over
20,000 students making it the third largest public university in Georgia. It has more than sixty
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undergraduate and graduate programs and over 600 full time faculty members. Permission to
conduct the study at the library will be sought from the library director and according to KSU's
research rules, the university's IRB.
A quantitative approach will help obtain objective data to measure attitudes about the
level of impact of EDD (Creswell, 2003, p,20). Independent variables in this study include
patron status, age and frequency of received items. These variables may affect the level of
impact that EDD has on a patron.
The use of a questionnaire was chosen because it is a widely used tool to gather responses
from a large number of people (Baker & Lancaster, 1991).
It will be created using the web-
based survey service SurveyMonkey. This service has been used several times before on the
KSU campus, and so participates will be familiar with its interface. The questionnaire will be
distributed through a link to the survey on KSU's ILL registered patrons' account page. These
patrons include faculty, staff, undergraduate and graduate students. This delivery method helps
to ensure the survey is sent to those that utilize the EDD service. There are approximately 6,500
registered patrons but this number includes all who have registered since the Fall of 2004. It
would be difficult and time consuming to determine how many are current active users, and so
providing a link from their account page will avoid that process.
Beginning questions in the questionnaire will ask the patrons status, age and frequency of
EDD use per month. Other questions will use a five point Likert scale to ask about the impact of
EDD on patrons receiving and organizing information and creating documents. Open questions
will ask for additional comments and for other ways EDD assist patrons. Although not many
comments are expected, providing the opportunity for comments may result in obtaining
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additional details of patrons' attitudes toward EDD service. A pilot test of the questionnaire
given to faculty, staff and students will help judge its effectiveness and increase its reliability as
a measurement.
Borrowing request reports from ILL's ILLiad program will be reviewed. ILL request
data are useful and readily available and may also be analyzed by patron type, time period and
subjects (Klein, 1990). The report data will provide an overview on the usage of EDD at KSU.
These reports will be from the perspectives of the patron groups and not individual requests so
that patrons' confidentiality is protected. Problems associated with document reviews include
difficulty in determining how the data was compiled and may have varied over the years (Hernon
& McClure, 1990). Description on how ILLiad collects the data and generates reports will be
included to address these problems.
This study is limited to the researcher's home institution of KSU. The study will explore
if receiving items through EDD makes a difference in patrons' research experience. Examining
the usefulness of the items requested by the patrons for their research is beyond the scope of this
study.
Data Analysis and Results:
Using two kinds of data (document review and survey) will increase reliability of the
study. Codes will be developed to describe the patron types, ages, frequency of received items
and responses to questions. Content analysis of the additional comments will be performed. The
data from the questionnaire will be analyzed with the assistance of the computer program
Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).
The borrowing reports will be analyzed
using categories of patron type, departments, number of requests and time periods. Frequency
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distribution bar charts will show the background information of the questionnaire participants
and the categories from the borrowing reports. Bivariate percentage tables will describe the
answers to the impact questions.
Chi-square tests will be used to determine the statistical
significance of the results and a p-value of .05 level of significance will be used. Pearson's
Correlation analyses will be conducted to determine the significance of the relationships between
the variables in the three hypotheses.
Conclusion:
This study is expected to reveal the importance of EDD services in the patron's research
process. A quantitative approach using data from a questionnaire and borrowing reports will
help give an overview of EDD's impact. The results will help librarians understand the benefits
of EDD to the research needs of their patrons. This understanding can be valuable when making
decisions about library resources and services.
References:
Baker, S. L., & Lancaster, F. W. (1991). The measurement and evaluation of library services
(2nd ed.). Arlington, Virginia: Information Resources Press.
Beam, J. (1997). Document delivery via uncover: Analysis of a subsidized service. Serials
Review, 23(4), 1. Retrieved September 16, 2007, from EBSCO: Library, Information
Science & Technology Abstracts database.
Berger, M. (1996). Ariel document delivery and the small academic library. College &
Undergraduate Libraries, 3(2), 49-56. Retrieved September 6, 2007, from Library,
Information Science & Technology Abstracts database.
Creswell, J. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches
(2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc.
Hernon, P. & McClure, C. R. (1990). Evaluation & library decision making. Norwood, New
Jersey: ABLEX Publishing Corporation.
Chris Sharpe, MLIS 7700, 12/02/07
Hiller, S. (2002). The impact of information technology and online library resources on research,
teaching and library use at the University Of Washington. Performance Measurement &
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LePoer, P. & Mularski, C. (1989). CD-ROM's impact on libraries and users. The Laserdisk
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(Eds.), New challenges facing academic libraries today: Electronic journals, archival
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Mitchell, E. & Walters, S. (1995). Document delivery services: Issues and answers. Medford,
NJ: Learned Information, Inc.
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Yang, Z. (2005). Providing free document delivery services to a campus of 48,000 library users.
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