Providing Free Document Delivery Services to a Campus of 48,000 Library Users

• Published in: Journal of interlibrary loan, document delivery & electronic reserve Vol. 15; no. 4; pp. 49 - 55
• Main Author: Yang, Zheng Ye Lan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 23-06-2005
• Subjects: academic library service; document delivery; Free desktop document delivery and interlibrary loan service; interlibrary loan; user satisfaction
• ISSN: 1072-303X; 1540-3572
• DOI: 10.1300/J474v15n04_05

In June 2002, the Texas A&M University Libraries implemented a new electronic document delivery service called deliverEdocs. The service uses ILLiad software. We began to offer free desktop delivery of any article, book chapters up to 50 pages (even those found on our own Libraries' shelves), to our entire campus. The service is well appreciated by our users. This paper reveals the initial reactions of the staff members in face of the challenge, discusses the resources needed to provide such a high profile service, details the workflow of the operation, shares the positive comments from the patrons, and illustrates the five key factors to the success of this service.