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The purpose of this paper is to describe how RapidILL expanded its service offerings from expedited requesting and delivery of journal articles to include delivery of book chapters as well.

The author uses a case study approach to provide an overview of the RapidILL service, the service advantages inherent in its system design, and how the system was modified to accommodate requesting and delivery of book chapters.

The challenges that RapidILL member libraries anticipated did not materialize; the system set up required for requesting and supplying book chapters is largely the same as for supplying journal articles. The resulting fill rate and turnaround time for book chapters compares favorably with that of journal articles.

The RapidILL book chapter service has been in place for approximately a year at the time of writing. This paper introduces a fairly new service, provides data from a key participating library, and will be of interest to interlending practitioners who use or are interesting in joining RapidILL. Interlending system designers will also find the discussion of the underlying architecture useful.

The paper aims to provide an overview of the RapidILL requesting system and describes its operation and the benefits derived by its users, including significant cost savings through elimination of various fees, expedited processing, maximum use of a library's own print and electronic journal holdings, and dramatic reductions in the amount of staff time required for processing interlibrary loan requests.

This paper takes the form of a general review and is written by developers with first‐hand knowledge of how the system works.

Libraries participating in RapidILL experience significant savings in both cost and staff time as a result of functionality built into the system.

Over 200 libraries currently use the RapidILL system, both in the USA and beyond its borders.

This paper provides extensive information on the functionality of the RapidILL system but also will be of interest to libraries that use other interlibrary loan systems.

The Morgan Library at Colorado State University in Fort Collins suffered catastrophic flooding as the result of a historic rain storm and flood that swept through the town on July 28, 1997. This study examines this single library's organizational disaster response and identifies the phenomena that the library's employees cited as their motivation for innovation.

Purpose – This study provides an example of a library where a pre-disaster and post-disaster organizational environment was supportive of experimentation. This influenced the employees’ capacity and motivation to create a new tool meant to solve a temporary need. Their invention, a service now called RapidILL, advanced the Morgan Library organization beyond disaster recovery and has become an effective and popular consortium of libraries.

Design/methodology/approach – This is an instrumental case study. This design was chosen to examine the issues in organizational learning that the single case of Morgan Library presents. The researcher interviewed employees who survived the 1997 flood and who worked in the library after the disaster. The interview results and a book written by staff members are the most important data that form the basis for this qualitative research.

The interviews were transcribed, and key phrases and information from both the interviews and the published book were isolated into themes for coding. The coding allowed the use of NVivo 7, a text analysis software, to search in employees’ stories for “feeling” words and themes about change, innovation, motivation, and mental models.

Three research questions for the study sought to learn how employees described their lived experience, how the disaster altered their mental models of change, and what factors in the disaster response experience promoted learning and innovation.

Findings – This study investigates how the disruptive forces of disaster can influence and promote organizational learning and foster innovation. Analysis of the data demonstrates how the library employees’ feelings of trust before and following a workplace disaster shifted their mental models of change. They felt empowered to act and assert their own ideas; they did not simply react to change acting upon them.

Emotions motivate adaptive actions, facilitating change. The library employees’ lived experiences and feelings influenced what they learned, how quickly they learned it, and how that learning contributed to their innovations after the disaster. The library's supervisory and administrative leaders encouraged staff members to try out new ideas. This approach invigorated staff members’ feelings of trust and motivated them to contribute their efforts and ideas. Feeling free to experiment, they tapped their creativity and provided adaptations and innovations.

Practical implications – A disaster imposes immediate and often unanticipated change upon people and organizations. A disaster response urgently demands that employees do things differently; it also may require that employees do different things.

Successful organizations must become adept at creating and implementing changes to remain relevant and effective in the environments in which they operate. They need to ensure that employees generate and test as many ideas as possible in order to maximize the opportunity to uncover the best new thinking. This applies to libraries as well as to any other organizations.

If library leaders understand the conditions under which employees are most motivated to let go of fear and alter the mental models they use to interpret their work world, it should be possible and desirable to re-create those conditions and improve the ability of their organizations to tap into employees’ talent, spur innovation, and generate meaningful change.

Social implications – Trust and opportunities for learning can be central to employees’ ability to embrace change as a positive state in which their creativity flourishes and contributes to the success of the organization. When leaders support experimentation, employees utilize and value their affective connections as much as their professional knowledge. Work environments that promote experimentation and trust are ones in which employees at any rank feel secure enough to propose and experiment with innovative services, products, or workflows.

Originality/value – The first of its kind to examine library organizations, this study offers direct evidence to show that organizational learning and progress flourish through a combination of positive affective experiences and experimentation. The study shows how mental models, organizational learning, and innovation may help employees create significantly effective organizational advances while under duress.

An original formula is presented in Fig. 1.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an update of Resource Sharing services at the University of Wollongong (UOW) Library two years after a complete review was undertaken to provide a financially viable service relevant to the research support needs of University clients. This paper provides an update of the service two years on.

The UOW Library has been attentive to global changes in the resource sharing industry and document supply services. Unmediated resource sharing options are growing and assuming an increasing portion of requests received from clients. UOW’s involvement in new services has focused attention on the value of its collection, particularly the last national copy of a publication. By ensuring these unique titles remain in the collection indefinitely, they can be shared with other libraries through resource sharing arrangements. Ensuring staff workplace health and safety during the ongoing transformation in the delivery of services is an important element in the continued viability of resource sharing at UOW.

The 2011-2013 review of UOW Library Resource Sharing services has resulted in a viable and relevant service that is adaptable to the changing needs of UOW clients and institutional directions into the near future. Unmediated requesting continues to assume a greater share of the requesting workload, though staff expertise is equally important in supporting this service. A future challenge for the UOW Library is the rising cost of postage for the sharing of loans across institutions.

This case study demonstrates how an academic library can transform its resource sharing service for ongoing relevance and cost-effectiveness. Taking a holistic view of the service, in terms of people, costs and services, is important to ensure the overall viability of the service.

The purpose of this study is to develop a mathematical model that can be used to forecast the demand for the inter-library loan (ILL) requests. Accurate estimates of demand are valuable for assisting researchers in their research endeavors.

Data were gathered at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for a period of 48 months from July 2008 to the end of June of 2012. Using these data, a centered moving average with seasonal variation model was formulated for forecasting the demand for the inter-library loan. These forecasts were then compared with the actual values to determine the accuracy of prediction.

Centered moving average with seasonal variation model proved to be a good predictor of the demand for the inter-library loans. The model proved to be a very good forecasting tool as the actual values seem to follow the forecasts very closely.

It is very important to be able to forecast the demand for the inter-library loans. Researchers constantly demand material for their research and librarians try to fulfill their demands. If the demand can be forecast with some degree of accuracy, the process can be expedited.

This paper seeks to evaluate the impact of the Group Interlibrary Loan Best Practices instituted by the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) Libraries in 2002 and to examine whether these best practices are still viable today. The authors aims to provide an updated discussion on current best practices in both GWLA and other highly effective library consortia.

The authors use a case study approach to identify areas where interlibrary loan best practices have improved service amongst the GWLA Libraries. In addition, the practices of other high performing consortia are included to further the discussion.

The GWLA Libraries found that the best practices implemented in 2002 improved service by decreasing turnaround time and increasing patron access to alternate format types. Other library consortia are also using similar group best practices that improve resource sharing.

This article focuses mostly on the beneficial outcomes of the best practices and limits discussion of the problems and pitfalls encountered.

Readers will gain an understanding of how instituting group best practices can improve interlibrary loan service and recognize the benefit of library groups.

This study aims to describe and analyse interlibrary loans and document delivery (ILL/DD) in the Chinese Academy of Sciences and to evaluate the ILL/DD service quality of one particular library.

ILL/DD at the Chinese Science Digital Library (CSDL) is described. The success of ILL/DD at CSDL is analysed. Finally, the service quality of one library’s ILL/DD based on LibQUAL+ is evaluated.

ILL/DD at CSDL can be improved through a multi-library union, and a modified LibQUAL+ model can be used to evaluate a library’s ILL/DD service quality.

More patrons can access a better service, and the work efficiency of librarians can be improved.

This study is helpful to librarians interested in ILL/DD and resource sharing in China.

The purpose of this article is to describe the development of Rapid, a successful document supply system in the USA.

The paper provides a descriptive analysis.

Finds that Rapid reduces costs and speeds up the fulfillment of document supply requests by using a well integrated system that precisely identifies holdings statements of participating libraries.

Gives a good insight into the workings of a cooperative document supply system in the USA with possible applications in other countries.

This chapter introduces Building Back Better Libraries (BBBL) as a critical concept for improved library planning both prior to and following a disaster or other emergency. Building Back Better, an idea widely discussed in the disaster recovery literature, seeks to use the difficulty of a disaster as an opportunity to go beyond the status quo and to promote changes that result in stronger, more resilient communities. The authors will define BBB elements and frameworks, building upon those to create a model for library disaster planning and recovery, and applying it to cases involving space and facilities, collections, services, and people.

Literature on the Building Back Better concept and frameworks, as well as library emergency response, was reviewed. This source material was used to develop a modified framework for improved library disaster planning and recovery. The Building Back Better Libraries framework is discussed and applied to cases involving library facilities and spaces, collections, and services, and its implementation through a disaster planning team is reviewed.

Though all libraries hope to avoid disaster, few succeed. One survey found that as many as 75% of academic library respondents had experienced a disaster or emergency. Evidence also suggests that few libraries are prepared, with as many as 66–80% of libraries reporting that they have no emergency plan with staff trained to carry it out. Even when plans are in place, the rush to respond to immediate needs following a disaster can overwhelm the ability to pursue effective long-term planning. Building Back Better, when framed for libraries, provides a planning tool to balance short-term response with long-term recovery and resilience. The Building Back Better Libraries framework focuses on the areas of risk assessment for library collections and spaces; recovery and rejuvenation for facilities, collections, and services; and implementation and monitoring, with particular discussion of the human element and the role of a library disaster planning team.

The proposed framework, Building Back Better Libraries (BBBL), can be used to strengthen disaster planning in a manner that balances meeting immediate needs with implementing longer term plans to create stronger and more resilient libraries.

Although aspects of BBB ideas are present in existing library literature, the concept is not formally defined for the library context.

The purpose of this paper is to communicate the Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative's goals and activities to an international audience of librarians concerned with using best practices and technology to make library resource sharing more responsive to user needs.

The paper provides a descriptive analysis explaining the Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative's mission and the activities it employs to fulfill it.

The paper explains how the activities of the Rethinking Resource Sharing Initiative contribute to improving the delivery of library information services.

The paper provides examples of innovative strategies, programs and activities designed to advocate for, inspire, and enable successful resource sharing.