Connecticut Libraries

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Cost Study

What:

The study will help you figure out your library's unit cost for ILL. The study uses 8 pieces of information: six pieces of information concerning each staff member who handles ILL, your library's total filled borrowing requests for last fiscal year, and your library's total filled lending requests for last fiscal year. With that information you'll be able to figure out your library's unit cost for ILL.

The following cost worksheets will help you collect the information and will calculate your unit costs automatically if you enter the numbers directly into Excel:

• ILL Cost Spreadsheet for up to 5 ILL staff members
• ILL Cost Spreadsheet for more than 5 and fewer than 15 ILL staff members

Once you have figured out the costs for your library, we encourage you to submit your library's data to Mary Jackson (see the "Who" section below for Mary's credentials). You can send the completed spreadsheet to maryejackson _at_ verizon.net or fax the worksheets to her at 301/879-1858.

• Note: Information that libraries furnish in the survey will be anonymous and confidential.

During July and August, Mary will compile and analyze the data. Later this summer or early fall, Mary will report the findings on a statewide level. Mary will anonymize the data in the report so that libraries who participate in the study will not be specifically identified by their data. A report will be available on this wiki.

Why Participate:

• The spreadsheet / methodology is an easy-to-use method of calculating your ILL costs and is much easier than the 6 or 7 cost worksheets used in previous ILL cost studies.
• It's a groundbreaking study - this is the first ILL cost study focusing on public libraries! 
• You'll be able to compare your library's results with the aggregated results that will appear in the report. 
  
• On successful completion of the Connecticut study, Mary will publicize the report as far and wide as possible and will look to publish the results in an article. The results of the previous studies Mary coordinated have been widely cited in library literature and in discussions of ILL costs.
• You'll be helping Connecticut libraries gain visibility.
  
• You will be helping other libraries. Mary will encourage libraries nationwide to use this methodology to figure out their ILL costs.  

When:

• Data is due no later than Wednesday, June 30, 2010. The deadline has been extended to Thursday, July 15, 2010.
  
• Please send the completed spreadsheet to maryejackson _at_ verizon.net or fax the worksheets to her at 301/879-1858. 

Who:

• All libraries in Connecticut are invited and encouraged to participate in the Connecticut ILL Cost Study.
• Mary Jackson is the principle researcher. She coordinated two ILL Cost Studies while she was the Director of Collections and Access Programs for the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and has published two books as a result of those studies:

• Measuring the Performance of Interlibrary Loan Operations in North American Research and College Libraries. Washington D.C: Association of research libraries, 1998. | reQuest | WorldCat
  

• Assessing Ill/dd Services: New Cost-Effective Alternatives. Washington, DC: Association of Research Libraries, 2004. | reQuest | WorldCat | Internet Archive (full text) 

Mary is Resource Sharing Product Manager for Auto-Graphics, but she is acting on her own and not as a representative of Auto-Graphics for the purposes of this study. Mary created the methodology and will:

• analyze the data,
• compile the results, and
• report the findings on a statewide basis.
• Steve Cauffman from the Connecticut State Library helped create the Excel survey and created this wiki.
• The Resource Sharing Section of the Connecticut Library Association sponsored the presentation that kicked off the study.

More:

• Number of libraries that have submitted data as of July 18: 17
• Download and listen to the audio (mp3) of the "What Does ILL Really Cost?" session that took place at the CLA Annual Conference
• View the PowerPoint Presentation
• The presentation with transcripts of the session 

Questions?

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

What's "fringe?"

Fringe is what the library is paying on your behalf, but you’re not seeing it in your paycheck in terms of take home pay. It is your vacation time, it’s your health benefits, it is your sick leave, it’s FICA. The numbers will vary from 15% to 30% or lower or higher, it depends on what your local library or city or county has decided what the fringe is.

My library is part of a consortium. Do I count our 'transit holds' as ILLs in the study?

We suggest you use the numbers you report to the state as ILL transactions. If that includes your consortium holds, then those transactions should be included. If what you report to the state does include the holds, then you would include the staff time involved in processing those requests.

• Other questions? Contact Mary, maryejackson 'at' verizon.net, or Steve Cauffman, scauffman 'at' cslib.org or phone 860-704-2223.