Service Quality Improvement
Council
Document Delivery Group Charge
Tracking down books and journals in the Yale libraries
can be a time consuming process as materials are in widely scattered
locations, with different service procedures to assist readers to
retrieve needed items. It can be frustrating to readers to find that
the item wanted is unavailable, either because it is in use by another
reader or it isn't where it is reported to be on the shelf. Readers
have expressed irritation at the cumbersome and seemingly unnecessary
need to fill out multiple forms with repeated information identifying
themselves and the citation for the item(s) they seek when they navigate
through the various library services available to assist them, such
as paging, interlibrary loan, recalls, stack searching, Eli Express,
and in the near future, retrievals from LSF and the CoPY participants.
Additionally, some readers do not understand why they cannot get articles
copied for them from any Yale library, when they can obtain photocopies
from some.
The purpose of this Document Delivery Group is to explore
and recommend how to improve the ways a YUL reader can obtain a copy
of a known bibliographic item, regardless of the location of the physical
piece and the reader's preference of campus library with which to
obtain the service. Underlying service principles to guide this group's
work include the following: 1) that Yale faculty, students and staff
(here referenced as "readers") may expect library assistance to obtain
access to bibliographically identifiable items; 2) that a reader should
need to submit a request for delivery of a known document only once;
3) that library procedures to process readers' requests be seamless
to them, regardless of whether the location of the item is at a campus
library, at the Library Shelving Facility, or obtainable via ILL,
commercial vendors, or such cooperative arrangements as the CoPY pilot;
4) that document delivery service standards be clearly stated and
the library's performance in meeting them be monitored and improved
to meet reader expectations; and 5) that service efficiencies be identified
and incorporated into library practices, while service costs and reader
value be balanced in decisions concerning development of collections
in support of research and teaching on campus. Although the group
periodically should validate assumptions concerning what readers value
in this service, the group may wish to start its quality evaluation
of its service design with the aim to simplify reader effort, attain
delivery time and delivery success rates reflective of reader needs,
and reduce service costs.
An excellent, librarywide, document delivery service
program cannot be established overnight, nor is such a program likely
to remain static once established. This Group is charged to develop
and help support a librarywide program, monitor its effectiveness,
and continually improve its service quality. To begin this effort,
the Group is asked during its first year to accomplish the following:
1) to examine and further clarify the ambition of creating
a seamless document delivery service program in light of the YUL resources,
organization and practices,
2) to design a program that best meets this service goal,
and
3) to recommend a realistic plan to phase implementation
of actions leading to evolving such a program over the next two years.
The Document Delivery Group reports to the Service Quality
Improvement Council. Its members are appointed by the SQI Council
chair, in consultation with the group's chair and the AUL for reader
services, for a renewable, year term; some continuity among membership
is desirable.
