Coordinating Committees

Report of the 2008 Universal Borrowing Working Group to the Collections & Resource Sharing Coordinating Committee

The Universal Borrowing Working Group has been charged to evaluate the effectiveness of the Universal Borrowing service as it is presently operating and to make recommendations on improvements/enhancements within the context of UB’s current functionality.  In addition, CUWL has specifically asked us to look at three areas.  Below, please find the recommendations of the working group for each of these areas.

1. Whether UB pickups should be allowed from the holding library and whether this service should be implemented System-wide.

It is our recommendation that this practice be adopted.  We believe that patrons should be able to request items from any library and able to pick them up at whatever library is most convenient to them, even if that means that the owning and pick-up library are the same site.  This is good public service.

Some libraries have expressed concerns with the impact on staff workloads that allowing such a “pull service” might have on them. UW-Madison offers this system for its patrons and reports that, while used heavily, the impact on staff has not been overwhelming. The UW Colleges libraries also offer this option and have not seen increases in workload because of it.

It is also beneficial to have all sites set up in the same manner.  It is our theory that having different parameters set among libraries may contribute to the strange, inexplicable error messages that are sometimes received.

2. Whether UB aggregate block limits should be extended to patrons' local circulation transactions.

The working group is in favor of applying this new option so that local patrons who have reached the UB aggregate block limit are also blocked from new local circulation transactions.

3. Whether the UB's promotion capability should be implemented system wide.

UB promotion would allow for a request that cannot be filled at the first library which receives it to be passed along to other UW libraries holding the same item until the request is filled.  Members of the working group have done testing with the hope that this feature of the system could be implemented. Unfortunately, we are not able to get the system to promote beyond one other site; and, then, only sporadically.  It is our recommendation that this service not be implemented until such time as future software releases better support this functionality.  Further consultation with Ex Libris and testing are needed after we upgrade to version 6.5.4 this summer and standardize our UB settings System-wide.


Other Recommendations

Above and beyond the three areas we were specifically asked to look at, the Working Group would like to emphasize the importance of System-wide consistency in several of the most important UB settings which have previously had recommendations made for them.  As part of the Group’s work, we updated the comparison chart created in 2007 showing the current SysAdmin settings of each UW library for particular UB recommendations.  From this exercise we learned that not one of the UW libraries is currently in complete compliance with previous UB recommendations.  Realizing that complete compliance is probably not attainable, we would like to strongly recommend, however, that consistency in two key settings would most likely improve UB functionality within UW System. 

1. The first is the recommendation to forgive the processing fee if a lost UB item is returned.  At the present time the majority of the UW libraries do this, but some make exceptions and do not forgive the fee for students even though they do forgive it for faculty, or only forgive part of the processing fee based upon how long the item has been overdue. This lack of consistency is confusing for both patrons and library staffs alike. The Working Group recommends that all UW libraries forgive all processing fees for returned UB items which have gone to lost status when the item is returned, and for all UB patrons, faculty and students alike.  We realize this might result in some reduced revenues for some campuses, but feel the consistent application of this policy across System is extremely important.

2. The second setting the Working Group strongly encourages consistency in is when the replacement bill for lost UB items is sent out.  The current recommendation is that replacement bills be sent 30 days after the due date of the item, but UW library settings vary from as low as 28 days after the due date to as high as 57 days after the due date.  It has been the experience of Working Group members that receipt of replacement bills often quickly results in “lost” items being “found” and returned, so it is in the best interest of the UW libraries to keep the interval between the due date and when the bill is sent out low.  Since resetting the Lost Interval for each UB patron group/item type combination in the circulation matrices can be time-intensive, in order to save time for those institutions whose settings are currently close to 30 days after the due date, the Working Group recommends that replacement bills be sent out between 28 and 31 days after the due date of the item.


Discussion Points

The Universal Borrowing Working Group would also like to recommend two areas of discussion for CUWL to consider regarding UB. 

1. First is the list of searches presented in the simulsearch interface.  Testing has shown that many of the searches currently available from various campus’ simulsearch interfaces do not work consistently, and sometimes not at all.  It has also shown that searches from the “advanced,” or Boolean,  tab used by most campuses do not work well in the simulsearch environment. The Working Group would like CUWL to consider asking all UW libraries to do further testing and possibly limit searching in the simulsearch interface to only the “simple search,” and only use the search indexes which have proven to provide consistent results through testing:  Words Anywhere (the GKEY index), Title Words (TKEY), Journal Title Words (JKEY), Author Words (NKEY), and Subject Heading Words (SKEY).

2. As a second discussion point, the Working Group would like CUWL to consider whether or not there should be consistency between System-wide UB circulation policies and local circulation policies.  In many instances UB policies are more liberal than local policies, and this can lead to confusion on the part of patrons.  For example, some libraries only circulate DVDs locally to their patrons for one week, but DVDs borrowed through UB circulate for two weeks.  The general feeling of the Working Group is that consistency between local and UB policies would be the ideal for patrons, but we realize that this might not be possible in all cases.  It is an issue which we would like to see the CUWL Directors discuss, however.


In addition to the above recommendations, to fulfill its charge to evaluate the effectiveness of the Universal Borrowing service as it is presently operating and to make recommendations on improvements/enhancements within the context of UB’s current functionality, the Working Group has prepared three pieces of supporting documentation.  The first is an updated chart showing current UW library settings for previously-recommended UB settings.  Yellow-highlighted items on this chart have been changed since the last chart was prepared in 2007 and are now in compliance with CUWL’s UB recommendations.  Gold-highlighted items are settings which are not currently in compliance with the CUWL recommendations.  In several instance libraries reported that they will be making changes to settings at the end of the current spring semester.  The settings in this chart, however, reflect the current settings reported as of April 22, 2008.

The second document is a listing of currently “UB-able” item types from each UW library. While the item type assigned to a particular item cannot be seen by patrons when requesting materials, it is hoped that having this chart will assist UW library staff members in determining why a particular item cannot be requested by one of their patrons if problems are encountered since item type names and location names are often similar enough to make connections.

Finally, to assist the LAMs with setting UB up consistently across UW System, a listing of recommended UB settings in SysAdmin and several key WebVoyage OPAC files is included.  It is hoped that with this guide in hand, small inconsistencies in settings which might be leading to some of the unexpected and unexplained problems previously encountered in UB transactions might be lessened.


Respectfully submitted,

The 2008 Universal Borrowing Working Group

Edie Dixon, UW-Madison
Dineen Grow, UW-Madison
Mary Rieder, UW Colleges, Chair
Emily Rogers, UW-Green Bay
Michele Strange, UW-La Crosse