Below is the original post, and the replies that were received. It looks like my memory was faulty, although I have not seen any statistics from either NLM or OCLC. Ellen Ellen Rothbaum, MS, AHIP Assistant Director Daniel Carroll Payson Medical Library North Shore University Hospital 300 Community Drive Manhasset, NY 11030 [log in to unmask] Tel: (516) 562-4324 Fax: (516) 562-2865 Original post: I remember seeing somewhere that interlibrary loan traffic dropped about 10 percent in 2005. Is that correct? Does it apply to DOCLINE only, or does it also apply to OCLC and RLIN. Thanks Replies: 1. I haven't seen that; mine have certainly not dropped, but a lot of mine is OCLC. Please let me know if you find out more. I would be surprised as many of us have had cuts in our journals budget. Of course in this day and age, if someone can't get it immediately, they might not want it. 2. I don't remember seeing that but I know that if anything my interlibrary loans both borrowing and lending have increased in 2005. 3. This past year I began to note on all my searches the free online places I found patron requested articles: copy=in house,FREE=PubMed, Science Direct=ELSEVIER,HIGHWIRE, EBSCO, WILEY, etc. Now to find the time to add them up. I know it was more than 10% more like 30%. 4. I have been watching for this thread, but haven't seen any replies. I am very interested in what response you receive, as our overall ILL numbers dropped for our fiscal year (2004/05) and I have already had to try to sum up "why". Of course, I noted that we lost our need to order as many of the "Faxon Journals" (we were one of the libraries hit) and that we gained a substantial number of e-journals. But, I also noticed a drop in requests received from DocLine & OCLC. I assumed a majority of this was due to our cleaning up our holdings lists during the past two years, thus decreasing the number of requests for items not held. But, if I missed a better explanation, I would love to be able to have it as part of the justification. 5. I don't know for certain. Mine as borrower and lender dropped some Jul-Nov 2005 from the same time period in 2004. But as lender it started picking back up late November to present and the same for borrowing. Some of that may be the decision for libraries adding their electronic holdings to Serhold. We are getting a lot more requests in the last two months for articles in journals where are holdings are electronic only. The fill rate for these for Docline requests falls below our usual fill rate because of license retrictions for many titles where articles from the current 3 months-12+ months aren't available for download. Also because individuals are doing searching on PubMed and requesting very recent articles(how many times as lender and borrower have we seen PubMed cites with E-Pub ahead of publication notices in the citation during 2005 and 2006?), we are getting more requests for items not available in hardcopy yet, and may or may not be downloadable online. I think part of the initial drop had to do with more libraries paying for online institutional access which either patrons can access and download articles or libraries can, rather than have to do interlibrary loan. Also, who is doing research and when their grant submission and research deadlines fall also affects borrowing trends. Last year and this year so far, have been busier in Jan and Feb than Oct and Nov which were our usual "crunch time" months. Customers are more apt to wait right up to deadline time and give us a smaller time window to fill requests as so many desire delivery right to their email, naturally, than to have to come to the library to pick up hardcopy articles or have hardcopies sent via intercampus or first-class mail. _____________________________________________________________________ The information contained in this electronic e-mail transmission and any attachments are intended only for the use of the individual or entity to whom or to which it is addressed, and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. If the reader of this communication is not the intended recipient, or the employee or agent responsible for delivering this communication to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying or disclosure of this communication and any attachment is strictly prohibited. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately by telephone and electronic mail, and delete the original communication and any attachment from any computer, server or other electronic recording or storage device or medium. Receipt by anyone other than the intended recipient is not a waiver of any attorney-client, physician-patient or other privilege. Thank you.