Defined Lender Strings

The New Hampshire Interlibrary Loan Protocol Manual defines how NHAIS libraries should select lending libraries for their ILL requests. In previous iterations of the NHAIS ILL system libraries built a lender string for each individual transaction and libraries were expected to comply with the protocol but there was no way to make it really easy for them to do so consistently.
The SHAREit system from Auto-Graphics--our new NHAIS ILL System--automates the construction of lender strings so libraries don't have to create them each time they place a request.

When a request is made in SHAREit the system checks to see which libraries hold the desired item (including both libraries in the Union Database and those connected to the system via Z39.50) and creates a lender string of all the libraries that have an available copy of the item at the time the request is placed. This string of potential lenders is sorted by the system based on a "Preferred Lender String" that has been defined for each individual library in the state. Those preferred lender strings were compiled based on the ILL Protocol manual.

To translate the protocol into library-specific lists of potential lenders some interpretation was needed. This is the relevant section of the manual:

SELECTING A LENDING LIBRARY
Certain protocols must be followed when selecting a lending library.  To the extent that this is possible, the online ILL system will automate this selection in accordance with these protocols. Factors such as geographic proximity and size and type of library will influence this choice.

•  The borrowing library should request the material from a library within the local area; e.g., a library within its van district.
  
• The borrowing library should request the material from a like-type library. Thus, school libraries should make their first requests of other school libraries, public libraries from public libraries, etc.
  
•  Libraries should attempt to request material from smaller libraries whenever possible so as to better share the ILL load.

To implement the "local area" part of the protocol every NHAIS member library, whether it gets van delivery from NHSL or not, was assigned to one of 5 geographic regions: Capital District, Lakes Region, North Country, Southwest Area, Southeast Area.

The first section of each NHAIS ILL participant's preferred lender string includes the libraries in its same geographic region. To implement the "like-type" part of the protocol those libraries within the geographic region were then sorted by type of library (public, school, special, academic). Libraries of the same type as the participant will be listed first with all the other types following in a single sequence sorted by size of collection with the smallest ones first. The collection size data that we used was the number of holdings included in NHU-PAC at the start of 2019.

The second section of each library's preferred lender string is all the libraries that are NOT in its same geographic region sorted by type of library with the type of library the participant is at the top of the list and the other types following and both type sections sorted by size of collection with the smallest ones first.

For example, if our training libraries were a geographic region of their own the preferred lender list for the Lilac Public Library would look like this:

• Birch Public Library (collection size =1665)
• Ladybug School Library (collection size =149)
• Finch Museum Library  (collection size =1208)
• Newt School Library (collection size =1503)
• All the other Public Libraries in the state sorted from smallest collection to largest
• All the Special, School, and Academic libraries in the state sorted from smallest to largest

The  preferred lender list for the Ladybug School Library would look like this:

• Newt School Library (collection size =1503)
• Finch Museum Library  (collection size =1208)
• Birch Public Library (collection size =1665)
• Lilac Public Library (collection size =5015)
• All the other School Libraries in the state sorted from smallest collection to largest
• All the Special, Public, and Academic libraries in the state sorted from smallest to largest

When we go live with the new system you will be able to see your library's lender string in your participant record. There is a system-wide lender string which only applies if there is no "preferred lender string" defined for a specific library which doesn't apply to any of the libraries who are set up to use the system. Your library's requests will go to a lender string built by the system based on actual item availability in the order the libraries are listed in your "preferred" string. Please note that ALL the NHAIS libraries, whether they are participating in ILL right now or not are included in the preferred lender strings. This is so that any NH library can be added to the system without us having to modify every lender string. If a library in the string isn't currently configured as a participant the algorithm will ignore the code when constructing a lender string for a request.

This automated lending string will save time for ILL staff each time a request is placed and will result in many more potential lenders for each request as EVERY library in the NHAIS ILL System that holds a particular item will be included in the request string until someone fills it, everyone says "no," or the "need by date" passes. It will also balance the ILL load across all participants in the system.