Elena Bernardini University of Milan
Giovanna Colombo University of Insubria
Carmen Lomba University of Cantabria, Spain
Silvana Mangiaracina CNR Bologna
Fulvia Merlini IRCCS Burlo Garofolo Trieste
Emanuela Secinaro INRIM Torino
A NILDE survey on international ILL exchanges:
results and considerations

NILDE
Italian network and software
for resource sharing
o ILL and DD supply web
based system
o 1000 library community,
200.000 requests/year
o Same vision and rules
o Free of charge cooperation
2
Intro
94%
5%
1%
NILDE libraries by country
Italy
Spain
All others (GRE, CHE, SWE, BRA, LUX, HRV)

3
NILDE International ILL request trend
o Opening to world libraries (since 2011)
o Software with multilingual user interface
o Increase in ILL exchanged documents 2011-2016
especially between libraries in Italy and Spain
Intro

4
From 1858 to
2002
After 2002 Now
INTER LIBRARY
LOAN
RESOURCE
SHARING
RETHINKING
RESOURCE SHARING
Intro
“NILDE without borders” survey
NILDE grows, world of libraries changes,
different vision about ILL exchanges
Need to understand more in addition to quantitative
statistics
ILL Survey? Why not?

“NILDE without borders” survey
PURPOSE: investigate current resource sharing practices
and interlibrary loan procedures/policies not only in NILDE
libraries network but also in external NILDE libraries in
European-Mediterranean context.
AIMS: collect feedback/results for promoting international
cooperation and expanding NILDE services.
BACKGROUND: look at previous anglo-american
international ALA-RUSA-STARS 2007, 2011, 2015 ILL surveys
and case studies
5
Intro

Survey METHOD 1
TARGET
✔ NILDE libraries
(including Spanish REBIUN and other foreign libraries) mailing list
✔ Other libraries outside NILDE network
Italian (AIB, Gidif, SiDocumenta), spanish (GTBIB, BIB-MED) mailing
lists and European libraries and library national associations contacts
6
Method
NILDE RECIPIENTS Non-NILDE RECIPIENTS
NILDE, REBIUN and
other associated,
foreign libraries
AIB, Gidif, SiDocumenta, Spanish
GTBIB and BIB-MED, other libraries
contacts and library national
associations mailing lists

Survey METHOD 2
SOFTWARE open source web-survey
application made available and hosted by University of Cantabria,
Spain www.LimeSurvey.org/
SURVEY LAYOUT
Anonymous multilingual questionnaire (Italian, Spanish, English),
total 23 questions (only a few required) and a final enquiry for
additional comments
SURVEY DISTRIBUTION
Invitations with websurvey link distributed via email message to all
mailing lists on 19 June 2017 to fill in until 18th July 2017.
7
Method

Survey participation
Survey opened 801 times with 401 completed surveys.
Uncompleted: survey breakoff, different browsers layout,
respondents’ levels of computer and web use, technical failures
(undelivered)
8
Results
69%
11%
12%
5%
3%
Library categories
University
Public Research Institution
Public Institution
Private no profit
Institution
Other
69% University
represented the
most common type
of library
responding
77% NILDE
associated libraries

Survey country representation
9
Results
312
53
2
1
2
and
1 Cyprus
1 Argentina

10
Results
Volume of international lending requests
appears higher than borrowing
Survey international ILL requests
Yes
70%
No
30%
Lending
Yes
63%
No
37%
Borrowing
Does your library send/receive international ILL-DD requests?

11
250
150
79 71
25 16 13 6 5 4 2 2
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
EU Center &
South
America
North
America
Extra EU Oceania Russia Asia Africa China Middle
East
India Other
Which geographic areas does your library receive international ILL-DD
requests from?
232
84
64
47
29
12 10 6 4 3 2 1
0
50
100
150
200
250
EU North
America
Extra EU Center &
South
America
Oceania Russia Asia Middle
East
China Africa India Other
Which geographic areas does your library send international ILL-DD
requests to?
Lending &
borrowing
top
countries
Results
Europe
and America
(North, Central
and South)

Returnables
requests
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Results
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
0 1-20 20-50 50-150 150-300 >300 % of responses
Number of requests in 2016
International ILL requests (books) received in 2016
Lending
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
0 1-20 20-50 50-150 150-300 >300
% of responses
Number of requests in 2016
International ILL requests (books) sent in 2016
Borrowing

13
Non-returnables requests
The most respondents have fewer than 20 international ILL
borrowing and lending requests
Results
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
0 <20 20-50 50-100 150-300 >300
% of responses
Number of requests in 2016
International lending requests
received (copies) in 2016
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
0 <20 20-50 50-100 150-300 >300
% of responses
Number of requests in 2016
International borrowing requests
sent (copies) in 2016
Lending Borrowing

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Type of payment
IFLA vouchers are the
most popular kind of
payment requested by
lending and borrowing
libraries
Other • Credit card
• OCLC IFM
• Deposit Account
Results
47%
53%
Does your library require a fee for
international ILL-DD service?
yes
No
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
IFLA Voucher
Bank transfer
International postal order
Other
Payment accepted by your library (L)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%
IFLA Voucher
Bank transfer
Other
Payment required to your library (B)

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45% 50%
Document unavailable, lost
Copyright/embargo
Wrong bibliographical references
borrowed book
Other
Main causes of not successful processing of international ILL
15
• fee and payment obstacles
• ILL service not provided
• No failed request
Survey
RESULT
S
Unfulfilled international interlibrary
exchanges causes

16
Would your library agree to free ILL exchange with foreign libraries,
asking for a compensation at the end of the year after a specified
maximum number of documents supplied?
Survey
RESULTS
Availability to free cooperation
Resource sharing and free of charge
cooperation attitude
88%
12%
Yes
No

Comments and suggestions
the most tell us about ILL difficulties, ILL delivery and
procedures, catalogue holdings visibility, copyright and
DD clauses, systems interoperability:
My library cannot implement an international ILL service because
of insufficient staff and organization”
Delivery and ILL receptions time is conditioned by post and custom
office”
Respondents ask:
Electronic IFLA vouchers - Simplify the transit from customs (US,
but also Switzerland) - Allowing different payment options -
Publishers agreements clauses allowing document delivery
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Results

Comments negative perceptions
o Non significant progress in resource sharing of returnable items
✔ visible but undeliverable
✔ fear of loss
✔ limited e-lending (i.e. e-books licensing restrictions)
Comments positive perceptions
o increasing exchanges of non returnable items (articles)
o successful experiences
o innovative solutions proposed
✔ e-lending solutions software or publisher agreements
✔ Local consortia or cooperation networks of libraries
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Conclusions

Conclusions 1
o NILDE widely disseminated in ITALY
o Availability of free cooperation (88% yes, 12% no)
o Needs to extend interlibrary cooperation
Higher number of international ILL transactions between neighboring
geographic countries (mainly ITALY, SPAIN, then other EU countries)
o International lending and borrowing common obstacles
✔ returnables payment, shipping costs
✔ copyright concern for non-returnables
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Conclusions

Conclusions 2
Suggestions about interlibrary cooperation and resource
sharing:
✔ free service for non-returnables document (scanned
and digitized documents have no shipping costs )
✔ collaborative collection development to fight lack of
funds and financial crisis
✔ simplify payment method (adoption of electronic IFLA
vouchers …)
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Conclusions

Similarities with other international surveys
(ALA-RUSA-STARS surveys) and case studies
• Countries of ILL exchanges: The majority of international
borrowing and lending countries are in North America and in
Europe.
• Materials difficult to obtain: older and rare, thesis and local
dissertations, e-books.
• Barriers/obstacles: shipping costs, uncertainty about licensing
and e-lending
• Payment method: IFLA vouchers
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Conclusions

Differences with other international surveys
(ALA-RUSA-STARS surveys) and case studies
• Lower volume of international ILL requests:
The most respondents have fewer than 20 international ILL requests
per year borrowing and lending returnables and non-returnables
(other surveys fewer than 100)
• ILL Request processing system:
NILDE (other surveys OCLC)
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Conclusions

Resource Sharing is not only
about "papers" but also about "people"
Elena Bernardini Giovanna Colombo
Carmen Lomba Silvana Mangiaracina
Fulvia Merlini Emanuela Secinaro
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Conclusions

NILDE Internationalization Working Group
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Colombo Giovanna (CBN NILDE - University of Insubria)
De Filippis Patrizia (CBN NILDE – University of Campania)
Maimone Ansaldo Patti Loriana (CBN NILDE – University of Messina)
Mangiaracina Silvana (CBN NILDE – CNR Library Bologna)
Secinaro Emanuela (CBN NILDE - I.N.RI.M Torino)
Tugnoli Alessandro (CBN NILDE - CNR Library Bologna)
Bae Peter (Princeton University, USA)
Bernardini Elena (University of Milan)
Çelikbaş Sema (Istanbul Technical University)
Chiandoni Marco (University of Trieste)
Lomba Carmen (University of Cantabria, Spain)
Mainardi Andrea (University of Pavia)
Mulondo Allan (Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law)
Reuspi Franco (University of Genoa)

Thank you for your attention!
Any question?
Contact info: giovanna.colombo@uninsubria.it
(on behalf of NILDE Internationalization Working Group)
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Conclusions