ELECTRONIC INTERLIBRARY LOAN SYSTEM NOW USED IN ONE-THIRD OF NATIONS RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES
24 April 2002 - Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Harry Kriz, director of interlibrary services at Virginia Tech and director of the project that developed ILLiad, attributes part of the growth in ILLiad use to the Online Computer Library Center, Inc., a global library cooperative with 41,000 member libraries around the globe and the sole distributor of ILLiad since October 2000.Ê ãOCLC is the proverbial 800-pound gorilla of the library world.Ê About 6,700 libraries in 28 countries use the OCLC interlibrary loan service,ä Kriz said.Ê ãBacking from such a major international company assures the continued development and distribution of ILLiad and also assures potential customers that their investment in ILLiad will be secure.

ILLiad also has the support of Atlas Systems, Inc., the primary software developer for OCLC ILLiad. In return, ILLiad has helped Atlas Systems, Inc. grow from a two-person, Blacksburg-based business to one with offices in Virginia Beach, Fredericksburg, Blacksburgâs Corporate Research Center, and in Davis, California.

The president of Atlas Systems, Inc., Jason Glover, is the creator of ILLiad and everyone involved in the continued development of ILLiad at the company learned the interlibrary loan business in Virginia Techâs Interlibrary Loan Department. ãJasonâs work went far beyond what we dreamed would be possible when we began the project. He is the one who saw that we could do far more than create a database to do away with our paper files.

Eileen Hitchingham, dean of Techâs University Libraries, likes to point out the economic benefits of the system.Ê ãBecause ILLiad has been taken up by OCLC, Inc., it is now available for purchase by libraries around the world, and it is likely to feed back again into growth of Atlas and growth of the Virginia economy,ä she said.

Kriz said that ãILLiad is the first and, in my judgment, is still the only interlibrary loan system designed from the ground up on the basis of the entire interlibrary loan process.äÊ That unique aspect of the system helped contribute to its widespread success.

The convenience of using it is another selling point.Ê Kriz said that the electronic system eliminates ãmuch of the tedious work associated with interlibrary loanä since it eliminates paper work, replacing it with the speedier process of typing information into a computer.

Hitchingham noted, ãFaculty and student users love its convenience.Ê Iâve had one faculty member say that it is so easy to request something online and the turn-around time is so fast for getting items that he is sometimes almost disappointed to find that we own an item.Ê If we own it, he needs to schedule time to come over and get it, if he gets it with the ILLiad service he is likely to have an electronic copy on his desktop within a few days.ä

Kriz attributes its current popularity to other quarters as well.Ê Shortly after ILLiad was introduced to the public five years ago÷the library celebrated ILLiadâs fifth birthday on March 17÷Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties was there to ensure its success.Ê ãMany things contributed to the success of ILLiad, including the critical role of Virginia Tech Intellectual Properties, Inc. in developing marketing strategies, learning the library business, and working with OCLC. Virginia Techâs support of entrepreneurial activities truly is extraordinary,ä says Kriz.

The commercialization of ILLiad was a goal from the beginning. ãBenefits of commercialization include long-term viability of ILLiad, lower costs as development costs are spread out over more users, additional innovation as new users are added who have new demands on what the system should do,ä Kriz said.

Even though the system has become popular throughout the country, Virginia Tech remains one of its principal users.Ê The reason for that, Kriz said, is that Tech ãis about the sixth largest borrower in the country, and weâve borrowed materials from as far away as Australia. As for document delivery from Virginia Tech to the extended campus, we are currently delivering materials to students in Malta and in Taiwan, and we have a couple of students in Alaska who are using our services,ä say Kriz.

http://www.vt.edu

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