Get Help: Interlibrary Loan

Advanced The following instruction is for Full-Time ILL staff only.

What is Purchase on Demand (POD)

When material is requested by SUNY Potsdam patrons via ILL, we will sometimes purchase the material outright instead of borrowing it from a library. This is called Purchase on Demand.

Our ILL department currently practices two varieties of POD.

1.) Books are purchased from Amazon. Expedited shipping ensures the material arrives within one week. The book is loaned to the requesting patron. Upon its return, the book is given to the Collection Development Coordinator to be considered for addition to the College Libraries' collections, or is given directly to Acquisitions staff for processing.

2.) Proquest UMI dissertations are purchased as PDFs directly from UMI and are delivery directly to the requesting patron.  

Amazon Book Purchasing

Procedure

Materials for purchase are initially identified by ILL staff from ILL requests submitted. POD candidates are identified in one of two ways:

• The patron indicates the material should be purchased. The current ILL request forms for physical materials already asks patrons if their requested item should be purchased. This option is currently only available to faculty patrons. An ILLiad routing rule sends an email to a designated ILL staff member(s), who will determine if a purchase appropriate. The request is automatically flagged “POD”.
• The ILL staff identify situations where POD would be beneficial. See below criteria. The staff member flags the request “POD” and manually sends the “POD Consideration” email to the designated ILL staff members(s) for approval. 

1.) In both cases, the ILLiad-generated email containing all relevant information is sent to the designated purchaser(s) and the ILL request is processed per usual (if staff wish to attempt to fill via ILL while they wait) or simply routed to the “Request Sent” queue. Patron POD request emails and routings are automatic (via an ILLiad IDS Logic rule) while staff-identified instances are initiated by the staff.

2.) Acquisitions staff determine if the material should be purchased.

• If not, a same-day [alt.: 48 hour] reply email tells ILL staff purchase is not an option. ILL staff determine the next action—cancelling the request or finding other means to obtain the material.
• If yes, the material is immediately purchased, per procedure to be determined by Acquisitions staff. An alternative shipping address is used, which includes the line “C/O Interlibrary Loan.” A same-day [48 hour] reply email notifies ILL staff. ILL staff cancel any active OCLC request, add POD as the lender in the ILLiad form, and route the request to “Request Sent.”
• If no reply comes from Acquisitions staff in the allotted time, ILL determines an alternate course of action. In some cases, this might mean cancelling the request; in most it will mean patience, or attempting to borrow from a library while giving Acquisitions more time to respond.

3.) When the material arrives, it is unpackaged by ILL staff and checked in as if a typical ILL borrowing request. Staff select POD as the “lending library” symbol in the check-in process. An ILL bookstrap goes on the cover and the book is lent per usual. [Optionally, we could include a sticker/bookmark/note that tells the patron “We bought this book because of you!” or some other affirmation that sends the message that we are listening.] [Acquisitions staff is notified that the item was received.]

4.) When the material is returned by the patron, it is checked in as an ILL request in ILLiad, then given to Acquisitions staff for processing (The return shipping label printed by ILLiad will be a reminder to return the item to acquisitions.) or to the Collection Development Coordinator for consideration.

5.) Acquisitions staff follow standard processing for cataloging and adding materials to the collection. Within ALEPH, the item is marked for in-house use to indicate use for circulation statistics. [Alternately: Item is checked out to ALEPH  “patron” ILL and checked back in, indicating use.

Purchase Criteria

• Amazon availability. Must be available from Amazon, shipped by Amazon, eligible for free shipping with Amazon Prime.
• ILL availability. Is the material owned by any ELD libraries? If so, shipping time will be comparable to Amazon and POD is of less benefit. Materials not owned by any libraries are stronger candidates, as are materials only owned by libraries that charge additional fees. If only available from distant libraries, delivery times will be longer.
• Cost. Depending on size, it can cost $5 to $15 to ship ILL materials (counting both borrower and lender shipping expenses); anything easily purchased for $10 or less should be, as it is comparable in cost, will arrive faster than ILL borrows, and can be included in the local collection. For other materials, cost should fall under a predetermined spending limit.
• Subject matter/material supports SUNY Potsdam programs/collection development goals.