ArticleReach for Wayne State

Wayne State University Library System, Detroit, has officially become a member of an international consortium using ArticleReach, an electronic document delivery service developed by Innovative Interfaces. The product allows for centralized access to journal content from member libraries and lets end users request documents from other institutions directly without going through a lengthy and time-consuming interlibrary loan (ILL) request process locally. With many fewer requests handled by local staff, the entire operation becomes far more streamlined.

The ArticleReach beta testing phase at Wayne State began in May 2007 at the behest of Sandra Yee, dean of the university libraries, who was intrigued by the software's potential timesaving possibilities for her staff. Now, little more than a year later, over 11,000 articles have been delivered to members of the Wayne State community, with 6200 requests fielded by the school. “The average turnaround time has been less than 30 hours,” according to university statistics, while “approximately 70 percent of all requests have been filled by ArticleReach libraries, with the remaining 30 percent transferred to traditional interlibrary loan.”

The consortial resource sharing service has also recently added a number of international members, including the University of Glasgow (Scotland) and the University of Queensland (Australia). Joseph Sharpe, manager of content delivery in public services at Wayne State, told LJ that the addition of foreign universities helps not just in terms of increased collection size but also for the access it gives to other time zones as well: having members around the globe means round-the-clock fulfillment of article requests. However, there are still “some challenges in terms of processing copyright” for international transactions, Sharpe acknowledged, though the group is working toward “a model for future international consortial arrangements.”