Publication Date
10-2017
Document Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
This paper will address the challenges faced by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Library, its history in supplying research materials to its community, and the significant shift in its collections strategy in 2015 that directly affected how the Library would continue to provide information resources to its students, faculty, and staff through resource sharing. Prior to 2015, the Caltech Library had approached procuring information resources for its campus community in a hybrid model that married together the typical academic library process of interlibrary loan with a business or special library practice of purchasing material and charging users for the service. Based on a number of factors in 2015, this process shifted to a multi-faceted approach that utilized an increased use of consortia, mediated article purchasing, and an unmediated article acquisition process where our users can decide whether to use the normal interlibrary loan process or a “rush” alternative. This included embedding the unmediated rush option within search engines such as Web of Science and Ebsco Discovery Service (EDS). This paper will share the findings of this strategic change and the outcomes based on the data.
Recommended Citation
McCaslin, D. (2017). Getting ahead of the curve: an investigation into how the Caltech Library succeeds in resource sharing (paper presented to the IFLA Interlending and Document Supply Conference (Paris, 2017). Retrieved from https://poetcommons.whittier.edu/lib/2