Instant linking — delayed use: setting provider expectations

A recent institutional study at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay investigated the academic achievement of interlibrary loan (ILL) users as compared to non-ILL users. While this study provided important local insight into ILL use and the demographics of ILL users (class rank, major), it uncovered a rather minor overall GPA difference,.20 GPA points, between ILL users and non-ILL users. However, within these data was an interesting subset that once thoroughly investigated, provided rich details about ILL article use, the users who rely on ILL for articles, and the GPA differences between users across the spectrum of ILL article use. The resulting analysis compares users who use ILL for a large number of articles, those who use ILL for a medium number of articles, those who use ILL for a small number of articles, and those who do not use ILL. Takeaways from the data presented should provide libraries and practitioners with a greater understanding of ILL article use, its role in user information-seeking behaviors, its correlational effect on student academic achievement, and for whom—ILL article users—libraries are incurring the high cost of articles through ILL.

This paper presents the analysis of 10048 inter-library loan (ILL) requests received in the Kyorin University Medical Library, Tokyo, in 1995 to examine the relevance of geographical distance between libraries. This study is based on the author's opinion that an ILL request should ideally be sent to the closest library to the library that requested the ILL. Two indices were used for the analysis: distance (1-5) between the libraries that requested the ILL and us (index A), and distance (1-5) between the libraries requested that ILL and the nearest library to them that holds the requested articles (index B). If indices A and B are the same level, the request is considered to be relevant. Results: A total of 4959 requests (49.35%) including 3541 from libraries in Tokyo were relevant. Relevant requests from outside of Tokyo totalled 1418, 21.79% of all requests made outside of Tokyo. A total of 50.65% of all requests were irrelevant. That means that half of the requests could have been made to nearer libraries rather than to us. As distance of the requesting library from us increased, there was a tendency for a decrease in relevancy rate. More than 80% of all requests could be supplied by libraries within distance of 1 to 3. Conclusion: One of the reasons that many libraries can't make ILL requests to nearer libraries is rejection by holders. As the number of ILL requests has been increasing rapidly, rejection of requests by holders can cause stagnated operation of ILL and irrelevant requests. Since there is no official guideline for requesting ILL regarding the distance between libraries, judgement of whether or not to accept the request on the holders' favor. ILL should be operated under a clear and certain policy and not by holders' goodwill.

: This report represents evaluations of Data Link products and services in a simulated aviation operation. The study addresses key issues related to alerting schemes for Data Link messages, positioning of Data Link displays, and mode of presentation of Data Link messages. The comparison of response times of two alerting schemes, a nondistinctive alert and a nondistinctive alert with an annunciator lamp, did not favor one over another. The forward-mounted Data Link display led to less time required to respond to Data Link messages over aft-mounted, although this difference was not statistically significant. The aft-mounted display was also rated as higher in workload and lower in visibility by crews. Pilots preferred digitized speech over a text-only presentation of messages. The availability of Data Link significantly reduced the amount of controller radio communication with pseudopilots and simulator pilots. The subjective effort, workload of pilots, and fuel burn were not affected by the Data Link capability. However, pilots raised concerns about reduced confidence, safety, and situational awareness with Data Link.

The most innovative online journals are maturing rapidly and distinctive new Knowledge Portals are emerging day by day. Foremost among the features of the portals is the hypertext link, popularized by the World Wide Web and which will form the basis of a new, highly integrated scholarly literature. Journal integration in this instance seeks to recognize, extend and exploit relationships at the level of journal content–the papers–while maintaining some of the familiar contexts. Links are a powerful tool for journal integration, most immediately in the form of citation linking. The paper defines what knowledge portals are and describes a new system, a link service, which is being developed to support novel and flexible linking mechanisms on the Web. The main aims and objectives of the study and the definitions of citation linking of journal articles and the importance of the citation linking are also discussed in this article with reference to the e-journal Knowledge Portal of ACM. The methodology used in the JACM to link the citations is explained with figures.

Interlibrary loan has traditionally been the main access to information beyond the individual library collection. The increase in access to document delivery services and full-text databases, however, has created the need to evaluate interlibrary loan services within the overall access environment. One of the most important factors in this evaluation concerns the cost to provide interlibrary loan. The purpose of this article is to provide the results of a study of one year's interlibrary loan expense at the Library at Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas. The study was conducted to identify areas of greater and lesser interlibrary loan expense, and to serve as a comparison to the results of cost studies based upon data collected from large research libraries. The final results are also intended to serve as a reference point in determining how best to balance the use of interlibrary loan with commercial document delivery sources.

In academic libraries today, many journals are accessible as full text via various databases or direct subscriptions. The number of journals available in this format generally rises each year, and this growth inevitably changes patterns of academic library use. Many librarians wonder if the increasing availability of electronic full text journals will decrease or even eliminate the need for interlibrary loan of articles. Alternatively, as more articles are available electronically, will patrons want more via interlibrary loan? To study the relationship, this research report examines interlibrary loan requests and availability of e-journals at the Blough-Weis library at Susquehanna University, a small liberal arts college, over the course of ten years (1995/1996-2004/2005). Using data from the interlibrary loan and serials departments, the study quantifies the change in the number of interlibrary loan article requests and determines whether increased electronic journal access causes a decline or an increase in interlibrary loan requests.

The ability to trace new and changed requirements to their impacted components provides critical support for managing change in an evolving software system. Unfortunately numerous studies have shown the difficulties of maintaining links using traditional traceability methods. Information retrieval techniques can be used to dynamically generate traces and alleviate the need to maintain explicit links, however prior work in this area has focused primarily on establishing intra-requirement links or links between requirements and code. We compare several retrieval techniques for generating links between requirements, code, and UML models. Tracing to UML elements provides a higher perspective on the proposed change than would be possible if links were generated directly to the code and supports the growing trend towards model driven development. Our experiment returned better results for establishing links to UML artifacts than to code, suggesting the usefulness of establishing links to code via UML artifacts. We conclude the paper by discussing the implications of this approach for managing the evolution of a software system.

Modern design concepts apply probability density functions to model the traffic flow and capacity. In the application travel times are calculated by drawing random realisations or by estimating an expected value. Generally it is assumed that the distributions of different infrastructure elements are independent and not correlated. In literature this property is so far not often tested. During a project in November 2003 at IVT data was collected from floating cars using a device to record GPS-data on approximately 30,000 kilometres within the canton of Zurich. These floating car data (FCD) was aggregated to gain link travel times on the network of that area. In this paper the correlation of the link travel times or more generally the experienced travel speed is computed, grouped within different road types. This can be done by matching the GPS data to a network model. Different network dependencies are investigated by calculating the correlation for travel speeds measured on paths for given numbers of intersections and distances. It can be seen that the correlation is high for pairs of speeds which are near to each other and decreasing with an increase in the distance. The FCD of three vehicles over many days is combined by establishing a realistic space-time envelope based on theoretically possible routes to the position of other measurements. From each link with an aggregated travel time the FCD the shortest path (based on the travel time) to each later link information was calculated. If these two measurements on the links could have been produced by a car travelling that route at the time this link pair was also used for the calculation of the correlation. With these theoretical routes sufficient data pairs can be compared to get significant values for the correlation.

To improve the DSR protocol in wireless network, this paper puts forward MR-DSR, a kind of optimized link-state routing algorithm under multiple link selection wireless network. By calculating the link quality of multiple links, it realizes the purpose of avoiding network block and reducing network load. Based on the measurement results of each link quality under multiple link selections, we improve the protocol with AODVjr algorithm, and balance the load of the entire network considering the node energy distribution strategy. The improved algorithm is simulated on OPEN simulator, and the result shows that the algorithm can guarantee the stability of the network. In the event of link failure conditions, it can help choose the optimal link, thus ensuring the robustness of the entire network.

PurposeThe aim of this research is to display an applied and descriptive survey, assessing the feasibility of creating an inter‐library loan (ILL) system and document delivery services in public libraries of Fars Province (Iran).Design/methodology/approachThe tool for gathering data in this study is a questionnaire distributed to 254 people from public library managers and librarians in Fars Province. Data analysis was performed with statistical software SPSS (version 16), using descriptive statistics and the Friedman test.FindingsBased on the findings, 69.94 percent of research librarians and 95.9 percent of managers surveyed need to implement an inter‐library loan system. Activity of libraries in Fars Province in the field of ILL and document delivery library services was very low (5.73 percent). Research subjects indicated that the limitations and potential problems in implementation included: no guarantee that prevents damage to resources (97.3 percent), a lack of consistent rules using library services ILL (95 percent), a lack of funding for cooperation among libraries (92/1 percent), a lack of cooperation between public libraries in ILL library (91.3 percent), the high cost of cooperation among libraries, non‐credit provision for main organization (89.4 percent), a lack of equipment such as computers, scanners, copiers, and faxes (89 percent), a lack of librarians familiar with network technologies and databases (83.9 percent), a lack of trust among professionals in the field of librarianship and library document delivery services (80 percent), and a lack of coordination between the center and the library system for implementation (80 percent).Originality/valueThe paper offers recommendations which, if enacted, would lead to a much needed improvement to the ILL and document delivery services of public (and other libraries) in Fars Province.

Purpose – In 2010 and 2013, the libraries in the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries (ASERL) were surveyed to identify benchmarks and programs to support resource sharing. Benchmarks and challenges identified generate discussions regarding programming, networking, and other support to improve resource sharing operations. This paper seeks to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach – This study compares and contrasts the two surveys using mixed methods data analysis. This study assesses ILL performance and explores the challenges and trends interlibrary loan practitioners see today. Findings – The article identifies changes and trends in consortia-wide transaction volumes; staffing levels; campus document delivery; professional issues and challenges; and library organizational schemes. Research limitations/implications – The study did not include data from constituencies outside of interlibrary loan. It also did not include interview follow-ups with survey participants to discuss challenges and reorganizations in greater detail. Future interlibrary loan research could focus less on operational metrics and more on broader issues such as e-resources and change management. Mixed methods are effect tools for benchmarking and comparative case studies. Practical implications – Individual libraries can compare themselves to the operational benchmarks and use insights drawn from comment analysis to stimulate conversations regarding current and future roles for interlibrary loan. Consortia can duplicate the study to understand their operational benchmarks and their particular contexts. Originality/value – The study provides comparative benchmarks for research libraries and consortia spanning three years. It demonstrates substantial shifts in issues faced by libraries and librarians.

Virginia Commonwealth University has interlibrary loan staff members who work in a variety of locations. A review of library and business management literature and an informal survey of interlibrary loan managers was conducted to assess the extent and practices for managing interlibrary loan and document delivery staff members who work in separate locations. Data was collected to highlight common problems and challenges faced by managers who deal with this situation, and to consider the best practices used by the managers. The practices of interlibrary loan managers were very similar to those of managers found in management literature, indicating that library managers, particularly in interlibrary loan, can benefit from reading business management sources regularly.

Interlibrary loan purchase-on-demand: A misleading literature

The borrowing of materials by one library from another library, i. e., interlibrary loan, has been the traditional means of increasing patron access to items not available locally. The explosion of publications and other informational materials in recent years, as well as the continuing inflationary spiral in costs have played havoc on libraries in the United States. There is now almost universal recognition that more drastic changes to provide effective library services are needed. Although complete statistics of national interlibrary loan traffic for all libraries are not available, the number of interlibrary loans probably exceeds 10 million annually. Statistics published by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) show that its 99 member libraries made 2,158,000 interlibrary loans during the year 1974–75, whereas in the same period, these same large university, national, and special research libraries borrowed 477,000 items from other libraries. While interlibrary loan, as viewed by librarians, was intended to be approximately an evenly balanced reciprocal lending and borrowing operation among libraries – achieving a quid pro quo – these statistics indicate that balanced reciprocity is not often achieved.

According to the needs of meteorological operations, for upgrading the network link at the national level, it is combined with the current network structure to realize MSTP+MPLS VPN link hot backup. The relevant agreements and core technologies which involve two kinds of link of MSTP and MPLS VPN are deeply analyzed. The configuration of the two kinds of network link structure is focused. The advantages of these two kinds of link for backup each other are fully explained. The bearing and transmitting meteorological business performance of the hot backup link is validated to realize the weather system of double security, to make the weather business transmission quality assurance of higher, and to give full play to the role of meteorological guards.