Creating and Implementing a Database to Revolutionize the Management of Electronic Document Delivery Requests

Karen L. Hanus, Assistant Director

of Services and Collections and

Alfred Kraemer, Assistant Director

of Library Systems & Office of Research IT,

MCW Libraries, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI

Our Libraries

Three branches Todd Wehr Library is the main

branch that serves the medical school. That library is usually open every day and is open over 100 hours per week during the academic year.

Froedtert Hospital Library (open M-F during business hours)

Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin Library (open M-F during business hours)

Hospital libraries primarily serve clinicians with little time to travel to the main branch to pick up articles.

Pre-revolution Document Delivery

Document delivery requests were received on paper forms or via e-mail

E-mail requests were printed and then routed along with the paper forms to the appropriate library for photocopying

Users sometimes reported that they had not received their requests—the library had no way of knowing whether the requests were received and misplaced or never received.

Pre-revolution Document Delivery

Delivery of documents held by the library system was primarily delivery from the main branch to the hospital branches.

Hospital library staff primarily received and processed the requests.

The service was primarily only available from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Our Goals

To reduce turnaround time from receipt of request to delivery to the users

To provide articles at the users’ desktop

To improve communication to the users regarding their document delivery requests

To reduce misplaced requests and confusion about the status of requests

One of Our Means to those Ends

To create a new electronic database that would: Allow us to lengthen the

service hours by making it possible for staff in the main library to process requests in the evening and on weekends

Capture all requests in one place for easy management

Provide information about the status of document delivery requests that all library staff could access.

Library on Request (LOR)

The library created a new document delivery service called Library on Request. All document delivery

requesters are encouraged to submit requests electronically via:

Ovid An electronic request form PubMed

Articles can be scanned and sent using Ariel to the user’s desktop.

The Library on Request Database

The requests are received in a database

When the staff is ready to process, new requests can be retrieved, printed and routed.

The requests in the database are searchable by several different search parameters.

Electronic Request Method 1: Ovid

Ovid has a document ordering feature

Orders are received via electronic mail

Staff gather the Ovid generated e-mails in Microsoft Outlook

The e-mail messages are exported into a file.

The exported file is then imported into the LOR database and the data in the e-mails populates the LOR database.

Electronic Request Method 2: Form

An electronic request form was created and placed on the College’s web site

The form data is directly input into the LOR database via a PHP script

If the LOR database is down when the user is attempting to send in a request, they will be notified that the request cannot be completed at that time.

Electronic Request Method 3: PubMed

PubMed’s order system normally sends the user to Loansome Doc.

NCBI’s Document Delivery Service (DDS) allows PubMed users to order articles described in PubMed citations from a service of their choice. Institutions may register a local document delivery service.

Electronic Request Method 3: PubMed

To register a document delivery service, an institution must have a program at their site that: accepts PubMed ID numbers

(PMID) sent through the Order option of the Send To pull-down menu

retrieves complete citation information for the articles using the PMIDs

creates a document order form with the citation information pre-filled for the user

Electronic Request Method 3: PubMed

MCW Libraries wrote PHP scripts to accomplish this.

The library appended tool=NameAbbrev to the PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?tool=mcwdds&holding=mcwlib&dr=citation

When the user clicks “Send to…Order,” a local document delivery form opens. Brief citation information is shown in the bottom part of the form information.

PubMed DDS Process Sequence – Overview

Access to this form is controlled by our proxy server.Requests from off-campus prompt for proxy server login before the request form is presented.Background querying of PubMed to obtain complete article data is done with a PHP script. The script uses the output of the ESummary utility from PubMed/NCBI to populate the Form. (http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query/static/esummary_help.html)

PubMed user performs search and orders articles.

MCW’s DDS receives the PubMed IDs and retrieves additional bibliographic

data to populate an article request form.

User completes required fields and submits the

article request(s).

The submitted information is parsed and

re-assembled into separate database

entries for each request.

The submitted patron information is combined with each article request to ensure the correct followup, tracking, and reporting. Combining patron information with individual requests is achieved with a separate PHP script.

From this point, follow-up is the same as for any other article requests.

Assumes user has selected our DDS in her/his profile or has used a link that includes a MCW DDS preference.

A New Request in the LOR Database

An Updated Request in the LOR Database

Managing Requests Has Never Been Better

Since the master list of requests is in the database, we can easily see which requests are new, which are completed, and which are still in process.

We cannot lose requests since we are not relying solely on paper requests. We can simply print another copy.

Results

Since the Library on Request database was created in October 2005, the database has processed over 34,000 requests.

Over 20,000 of the requests were document delivery requests for items that were in our collections.

Over 13,000 of those requests were from items we held in our libraries in paper form.

Results

82% of the requests that we can fill from our collections are filled the same day they are received

15% of those requests are filled the next day after they are received.

User Satisfaction “I've always been impressed by the

breadth and convenience of library services offered at MCW. Very service oriented - miles ahead of my last institution.  But the other day I found an article I needed for some research that was published in 1992. I dread when I find an article I need before 1996 or so, because I always know that when I go to MCW E-journals to locate it, often the journal link will only have the abstract and no pdf. I then have to fill out a request form and wait days for it to be hand delivered to my office or the (hospital) branch. The other day however, I went through the process and was pleased to find the offer of emailing it to me, and got it back to me later that same day! That was huge! When you’re in the middle of working on a manuscript or grant and have to wait a week for a key article, it hurts. Great job!!”

Conclusion

The creation of the LOR database was a major key to being able to provide the fast service that the users need.

Adding the option to request directly from PubMed into the LOR database was a valuable service since PubMed use continues to increase.

Questions/For More Information

Contact Karen Hanuskhanus@mcw.edu(414) 456-8329Medical College of Wisconsin

Libraries8701 Watertown Plank RoadMilwaukee, WI 53226-0509 See the Library on Request

sitehttp://www.mcw.edu/libraryonrequest